The Finest Trick- Part 2
by G-Town Hoya
Summary: A fatality on a horrific child abduction case leaves two BAU members' careers hanging in the balance as the team threatens to drift apart. Additionally, a pregnant Emily Prentiss' relationship is in jeopardy after discovering unsavory truths about her husband. Emily/OC. JJ and Reid have prominent roles but are NOT a couple. Rated T for violence and abuse mentioned during the case.
1. The New Case

**This is a continuation from The Finest Trick- Part 1. I would recommend reading part 1 before reading this, but I think it is possible to follow this story without doing so. As always, the Alex in this story is NOT Alex Blake. **

**Here's a rundown for any new readers who just want a quick synopsis of the previous works in this series. Emily Prentiss is married to a fellow BAU agent (OC Alex Vanderbilt) who transferred from the CIA NCS division. He previously admitted to Emily that back in the CIA he was involved in elite black ops and made a fatal mistake on his last assignment before transferring into a joint FBI-CIA task force which led him to the BAU. However, Emily discovered he wasn't completely truthful about what happened. The full story of what happened in Islamabad will be revealed in THIS story. **

**As promised Spencer Reid will play a big role in this story, especially in how the series ends. Timeline wise this is AU before the season 7 finale.**

**Just a warning, the featured case is more violent and brutal than the other ones I have done in previous works so please do not ignore the rating. This work is rated T (think rated R) for mentions of child abuse, sexual abuse, and violence. It may be upgraded to M if the story gets more vivid, but right now all mentions of abuse are just being alluded to. **

**Thanks for reading. **

The office was dark somehow, even though it was still the middle of the day. Outside the office doors the FBI hallways were bustling with the usual movement, the usual agents moving through and through, trying to fulfill their assignments. Through those ordinary double glass doors the BAU team was working on paperwork and trying to forget then latest horrors they had just witnessed, trying to stop themselves from doubting if they could have handled the case differently. If they should have handled it differently. As their thoughts drifted to him, a firm voice spoke up in the otherwise silent dark office. "Agent Vanderbilt I will ask you again, on the record. What happened in Schenectady?"

* * *

4 DAYS EARLIER

Emily continued to stare down at the file in front of her, the words all blurring together. She heard a familiar buzzing and looked down to find her cellphone ringing, again. It appeared that she had missed 2 phone calls and 3 text messages. Some were from Alex, most were from JJ. She sighed when she realized she hadn't even heard the phone ring and still hadn't risen from the light blue chair in Secretary Vanderbilt's study. Emily took in a deep breath and calmly answered the incoming call, "Prentiss."

"Emily" JJ breathed a sigh of relief. "Where have you been?"

"I'm sorry I didn't hear my phone go off. What's up?"

"New case, it came directly to Hotch. Where are you? I called Alex and he said you weren't with him."

"Pharmacy, I needed to get my prenatal vitamins" she lied.

"Oh okay, meet everyone at the BAU. Emily if there's anything bothering you, anything, you can tell me. You know that" JJ reassured.

"I do, thank you" Emily said politely.

"So are you okay?"

"Perfect" Emily wanted to vomit at the lie. She couldn't tell JJ, but she couldn't help but feel betrayed. Sure Alex never outright lied to her, but he had deliberately hid the truth from her. For almost a year he let her believe that she knew everything about him, when it was painfully obvious she didn't. How well did she really know the man she was married to? Did she ever really know him at all? She shuddered when she thought back to her father-in-law's taunting words.

"Okay then I'll see you soon" JJ happily replied.

"Okay" Emily replied softly as she hung up the phone and walked out of the large home to her car, leaving the file on The Secretary's desk.

* * *

"Hey you" Alex greeted her with a smile as she walked into the BAU. Everyone else was gone, so he must have been waiting for her before going into the conference room.

"Hi" she responded as she pulled away from his touch.

Alex was briefly put off but smiled as he walked with her to the conference room. "I signed the paperwork. I hope you really didn't care about the choice because we now own a house."

"Good."

"Emily is anything bothering you, is the baby…"

"Everything is fine, but we need to get to work. I'm already late" she replied emotionless as she walked into the room and took a seat next to Rossi, away from Alex.

"Let's begin" Hotch commanded as he closed the conference room door and had Garcia pull up information on the latest case.

"We have a case in Schenectady, New York where 4 children have gone missing and have been found dead. The local police have picked up on a pattern that seems to show that the unsub keeps the children for 72 hours before killing them."

"How old?" Emily interrupted.

"All between the ages of 3-6, Mackenzie Jordan age 5, Liam Wagner aged 4, Margot Polley age 6, and Adam Lewis age 4. After dumping the bodies" Hotch shivered at the sentence he just uttered, "he abducts another child within the next 36 hours. Sarah Dempsey aged 3 was abducted from a park and was officially reported as missing 11 hours ago. We have 61 hours to find this girl before she is killed."

"Why the fuck didn't they call us sooner?" Morgan asked infuriated by the local police.

"Does it really matter now" JJ asked as she pictured Henry amongst those pictures.

"JJ's right that doesn't matter. What does matter is finding the unsub. Hotch let's talk about the bodies" Rossi spoke up.

"The cause of death for all the victims were fatal gun shot wounds to the head execution style. However, the bodies were branded post-mortem" Hotch said quietly as he looked over to Emily.

"With what?" Alex said hoping to refocus the attention from Emily back on to the case. Everyone was concerned about Emily during the presentation of this case. She was always affected by cases that involved children, but her being pregnant would heighten that sense of pain.

Hotch answered, "A heart was carved into the victims' thighs and a "T" and "Y" were branded inside of the heart."

"Oh my god" JJ spoke up.

"What is it JJ?"

"That's, it's beanie babies" JJ felt like she was going to be sick. How could have someone perverted something so innocent?

"He's playing with them like toys" Emily asserted. "Were there signs of sexual assault?"

"Yes" Hotch answered sadly. It was one of those awful cases he wished he could just turn down. But he knew it was very unlikely that another team could solve it.

"Sex doesn't matter to him. He however does abduct in a pattern, girl-boy-girl-boy. He alternates, could have OCD. The strict time frame seems to point to that as does the cause of death. You did mention that they were all shot execution style. It actually looks like they were shot from the same angle, in the same general area. Whoever did this is abnormally consistent." Alex surmised.

"That's good" Rossi spoke up. "That might help us narrow down a geological profile since we know he's consistent."

"I want us to hit the ground running on this case. I want everyone to get some rest on the plane because there will likely be little to none for the rest of the trip. When we get to the precinct I want Prentiss and JJ to set up family interviews and work on a press release. I know it will be late but when we land see if the Dempsey family will talk to you. We need to predict the next hunting ground in case…" Hotch drifted off when he considered the implications of that statement. "Reid work on the geological profile at the precinct and exchange any information you find with Garcia. Rossi and I will go to the first two dump sites. Vanderbilt and Morgan will take the last two and head to the morgue." The team nodded at their respective assignments.

"Garcia you're coming with us, keep track of the clock. Wheels up in 20" Hotch concluded as he left the room.

"Em" Alex spoke up before she left the room, ignoring him.

* * *

"Are you two fighting?" JJ asked concerned. She didn't want to pry but was worried about her friend. She must have been under enough stress already, she didn't need to be fighting with her husband on top of everything else.

"I don't know. I haven't even seen her this entire evening" Alex answered as he reflected back on the day. He couldn't think of anything he did that would have upset her.

"I'll talk to her" JJ assured as she left the room. JJ ran after Emily who was walking to the bathroom. "Emily what's going on?" She asked as she observed Emily splashing water on her face as she braced herself on the bathroom counter.

"Nothing."

"Emily" JJ commanded.

"JJ stop it" Emily snapped. "Please just let this go" she said almost pleadingly.

"Emily talk to me" JJ instructed gently as she walked up to her friend. "What's wrong?"

"Nothing I'm fine" Emily said putting her famed walls up.

"Emily we both know that's the same 'fine' you pulled when everything was going on with Doyle. You need to talk about what's bothering you. It's not healthy for you to just keep everything in."

"We need to get going, those children need us to focus" Emily countered as she left JJ alone to worry in the bathroom.

* * *

The team left for the plane traveling in two separate groups. Hotch, Reid, Rossi, and Emily went in one car while JJ, Garcia, Morgan, and Alex traveled in the other. Emily insisted on riding with Reid, as she wanted to talk about probability and victimology on the ride to the tarmac.

"What's going on with Princess, Alex?" Morgan finally spoke up, breaking the silence in the car.

Alex looked over to Morgan, "I don't know. She was fine earlier right?"

"Yeah" Garcia answered.

"And I was with Garcy and Kevin for the rest of the time so I don't know what happened. She wouldn't answer my calls when I called to tell her about the house. Where did she say she was when you finally got a hold of her JJ?"

"She said she was at the pharmacy."

"She told me she did that on her lunch break" Alex spoke up.

"Maybe her mom?" Morgan ventured.

"No, her mom's been great lately, she even sent us a baby gift. JJ?"

"I don't know Alex" JJ said gently. "I asked her and she wouldn't tell me anything. She just wanted to get back to work on the case."

"It's probably about the case" Morgan concluded.

"Not unless she's physic because she was upset before I told her about the case" JJ argued. "You need to talk to her Alex. It's not good for her to be suppressing everything, it's putting her under too much stress."

"I know" Alex said softly with a nod. If it wasn't a total invasion of privacy he would have commissioned Garcia to track Emily's cell phone from that afternoon. But he couldn't do that, there was a certain level of trust he felt they had built up and he didn't want to be the one who compromised it."

Emily sat next to Reid on the plane and Alex sat across from her, next to JJ. He watched as Emily gazed out the window and ran her hand over her tiny baby bump. He didn't know whether or not to bring up the branding with Emily, but ultimately he opted against it. Even though he was worried, Alex knew that she would be upset and vulnerable if he brought up her strange behavior in front of the entire team. He looked to JJ who already seemed to be emotionally exhausted. Alex didn't know which would be more tiring, speaking with families who just lost their children or combing through the dump sites. He put his head in hands and tried to turn off 'Alex' and turn on 'Agent Vanderbilt.' He looked over to Emily who seemed to be doing the same thing. Instead of sleeping, Alex kept thinking about the case, something wasn't right. On one hand it looked like the unsub had OCD and on the other hand the age range and both genders being accepted seemed to contradict that. It was 1am when the plane landed and Alex squeezed Emily's hand before the couple exited the cabin. Emily didn't respond to his touch and walked with JJ towards the vehicle the police had provided for them.

"Garcia time" Hotch ordered before everyone broke out on their own.

"58 hours, 45 minutes."

Morgan and Alex rushed into their SUV and headed straight to the dump sites while JJ and Emily were heading to the precinct with a police escort, Reid, and Garcia.

**Can Alex and Emily fix this? What did she discover about him that makes her doubt their relationship?** **And h****ow is this case ****connected to their problems? **

**Any predictions?**

**As always thanks for reading/reviewing. **


	2. Just 24 Hours

Alex drove as Morgan was still a little hazy from his airplane nap. Alex debated telling Morgan his hunch and opted to trust his new partner, "Morgan is there anything bothering you about this case?"

"A lot is bothering me about this fucking case" Morgan snapped.

"It's horrific but that's not what I mean. There's something about this case that just doesn't match up."

"What do you mean?" Morgan was intrigued. Last time Alex had a hunch about the St. Louis case he was completely right.

"The torture doesn't match the murder. There are cleaner ways to torture someone, more meticulous. Everything about this unsub is almost anal. The time frames, the cause of death, the order of it all. It is all so predictable until you get to the children, where everything varies. The only constant that remains when you get to the children is the sexual assault. Is this sort of differentiation normal in unsubs?"

"I don't know man. You're either talking about a split personality, which is rare or a team, which is even rarer. But it's possible. You learn about torture in the CIA?"

Alex thought back to his early infiltration days and the torture he had to endure, "something like that" he simply replied as the car went silent again.

* * *

"Is this where the body was dumped?" Morgan asked the uniformed officer pointing to the taped off yellow area off the side of a county road.

"Who are you?" The officer asked.

"This is Supervisory Special Agent Derek Morgan and I'm Supervisory Special Agent in Charge Alexander Vanderbilt. We're from the FBI Behavior Analyst Unit, we're only here to assist in getting Sarah Dempsey back home safely. So what can you tell us?" Alex said as he adjusted his gloves.

"Yeah that's where the body was" the officer remarked. "I'm sorry it's just…they were kids."

"I understand we just need to take a look" Alex said with a smile as the analyzed the scene.

"Risky" Morgan remarked.

"Yeah, especially if he had to complete his ritual to dump her. Which victim was found here?"

"Morgot Polley."

"Who found the body?"

"Local who lives near here, she was jogging. She called 911 as soon as she found the body, police reports said that she…"

"Didn't notice anything unusual. It's strange how we can use that language when it comes to something like this" Alex sighed. "Look at the rocks."

Alex pointed to four rocks that bordered the top, bottom, left, and right of where the little girl's body was found.

"They framed her body, work of art?"

"Or compulsion" Alex said as he got closer to the ground and rolled his sleeves up. "Did you see any rocks this large walking up?"

"No" Morgan shook his head. "He brought them from home."

"It's part of his ownership" Alex wagered as he stood back up. "He would have had to dump her in the middle of the night to complete his ritual. Which means…"

Morgan cut in, "We have less time than we thought. He didn't dump her in the morning, he dumped her at night."

"Officer how much traffic is normally on a road like this at say 5-8am?"

"A few cars here and there, some people work in town. A lot of the old families who live out here live in town and own shops."

"So they'd be leaving their homes early? Fuck" Alex mumbled. "Call Hotch from the car, we're not working with a 72 hour time frame, it's probably 60."

"60?" Morgan inquired as they walked back to the SVU.

"If this guy is compulsive then what number would make the most sense after 72 for having a sense of completeness."

"60."

"Multiples of 10, also fits in with the 4 rocks. 60 fits better than any other number. Put the call in " Alex commanded as he started the car.

"Hotch this is Morgan, we have a problem" Morgan said as they drove to the 4th dump site.

* * *

"Em, how are you doing on this case?" JJ asked concerned.

"It's fine JJ. How are you, they're all…" she drifted off as she looked up from a file to her friend. The duo was waiting for the Dempsey family to call them back to set up an interview.

"They're all Henry's age. At least they don't all look like him though."

"They don't" Emily said as she started fumbling hastily through the case files. "None of them share any resemblance. The hair and eye colors all vary as do ages and gender. This unsub doesn't care what they look like."

"He just needs the children" JJ remarked as she considered what it meant for the case. "How does that help us?"

Emily sighed, "It doesn't." After finishing the statement that Hotch was going to read to the press, Emily helped Reid in trying to find a pattern with the dumb sites. So far there was nothing.

"You know what sucks about this?" he turned around and asked exhausted.

"We need more bodies" Emily replied sadly as he just nodded.

Garcia walked in to inform the group of their hourly progress, "sorry loveless but we're down to 45 hours."

"What the fuck? How did we lose 12 hours already?" Emily yelled.

"Vandy and Morgan told Hotch that based on the dumping rituals there was no way that the unsub could have dumped the body near the time when it was found, which means that were probably killed before 72 hours. He said something about 10's but Em I'm so tired I don't think I could explain it."

"10's, patterns for 10?" Emily asked.

"Yeah why?"

"Reid find the point of origin of kill site. We go through the different hunting grounds and dump sites and we find whatever is 10 miles inside that pattern."

JJ and Garcia were completely confused by Emily's incoherent rambling but Reid seemed to pick up on it right away. He ran over to the map that was strew over the table and started making pinpoint marks in it with Emily observing him. "I got it!" he yelled. "Get the address for right here Garcia!" Reid exclaimed in triumph. He didn't want to admit how hard this case was for him, but he was glad that it was finally over.

"I got it pumpkin but it's nothing."

"What?" Emily asked floored. "There's nothing there?"

"There is but real estate records say that it was just bought out by a company looking to build a bed and breakfast. Emily, it hasn't been occupied by a resident in 2 years."

"Who last owned it maybe…"

"Elijah and Lorna Jessop were married 35 years with no children. He was on the town council before his death 8 years ago, his wife died 2 years ago. That's when the property was sold."

Reid looked down at ground and JJ analyzed her pregnant friend. "It was a good idea."

"I still feel like it's something" Emily said firmly.

"Okay we can back pocket it for later" JJ said trying to appease the exhausted brunette profiler. She had to admit that when Emily had a hunch about something she was normally right.

* * *

At 5am Alex and Morgan walked through the precinct doors.

"Find anything?" JJ asked hopefully.

"Nothing other than the rocks and time crunch" Morgan replied as he looked at his watch. "We're already down to 43 hours."

"Fuck" Emily moaned as she looked up to Reid who still had nothing outside of her original hunch.

"Emily you should go rest" Alex said softly.

"I'm fine" Emily replied coldly as she walked away.

"What about the profile?" Morgan asked as he tried to shift attention away from the frigid couple.

"It's all over the place" Emily grumbled. "Anger issues is consistent with the torture and sexual abuse but not the actual kills. The dump sites denote remorse. Impulse control when considering the beating but controlled when it comes to the timelines. It is all over the place, we can't even confirm male or female unsub."

"Maybe you're right Vandy" Morgan spoke up.

"What?" JJ asked, hoping that someone had an idea of what was going on.

"Everything is so different in this case, the torture contrasts with the kills and the abductions. Maybe we have two unsubs. Alex thinks that maybe one is more controlled, he's borderline OCD. The other isn't, he doesn't care about sex or age or appearance, all he wants is the children. All he wants is a child in a certain age range to have as his own before he's told by his partner that it's time to give them up" Morgan answered as he looked over to Alex who was drinking a cup of coffee.

"Why would they have such holds on each other though?" Emily questioned of the theory.

"I don't know, that's all we have so far."

"And the M.E.?" JJ asked hoping once again for some sort of a clue.

"All the kids were drugged with barbiturates, Pentobarbital. That's the only commonality" Alex answered as he scratched his 5 o'clock shadow.

"Remorse?" JJ asked.

Alex wanted to vomit at the question, "Possibly."

Hotch and Rossi walked into the precinct and Morgan caught them up on what they had been discussing.

"That might be something. JJ and Prentiss did you find anything from the families?"

"No one called us back" JJ said frustrated.

"That's odd. Prentiss, Morgan, Reid, Garcia, and Rossi go get some rest. JJ with Vanderbilt, go to interview the victims at home. Be firm, we need something. I'll brief the media and join the team at the hotel. We'll start up after JJ and Vanderbilt are done and then you two can take a break. Confer with Garcia if you find anything."

"Okay come on Jay" Alex motioned walking out the local precinct door. He was relieved that Hotch made Emily go to get some rest, but was worried about JJ as well.

* * *

"Thanks for watching over her" Alex remarked to JJ while he was driving.

"I love Emily and I know she can take care of herself but something is bothering her."

"I know, I just don't want to push" Alex said as he took a deep breath.

"You were supposed to find out the sex today right?"

"Yeah" Alex gave a small smile.

"What are you hoping for?"

"As scary as it's going to be, I really want a girl just like Emily" he laughed.

"I heard you have a top secret name picked out. Care to share?"

"Not a chance in hell Jareau" Alex said as he tried and failed to banter back to his friend. "The M.E.'s was bad" he admitted.

"Is it harder now that you're going to be a father?"

"It's always hard" he said quietly.

"You do this you know? The same with Emily, you shut down on a case. You don't seem like yourself."

Alex sighed, "I can't be during a case. I just can't joke and play around during times like this. It makes it easier too, to separate yourself from the things you see. To distance yourself. How do you think Emily is really doing?"

"I don't know, kids cases hit her hard, add that to branding, memories of Doyle, and being pregnant. It's a tough case. I keep offering and neither one of you want to talk about what's bothering you" JJ said sounding a bit more irritated than she intended to be.

"I know" he said softly before stopping the car at the Dempsey home. "Imagine how normal everything felt just 24 hours ago. It makes you wonder where we'll be in a day."


	3. Explosive

**All the building anger and emotional turmoil comes to a head in this chapter.**

**Any ideas on what Alex's connection to the case might be? **

Alex and JJ got out of the car and Alex knocked lightly on the door of the Dempsey home. "Mr. and Mrs. Dempsey, we're from the FBI and we need to speak with you." The husband slowly opened the door to reveal his despondent form. Colin Dempsey had grey hair, brown eyes, and was about 3 inches shorter than Alex. He looked to be in his early 50's. "Mr. Dempsey I'm Supervisory Special Agent in Charge Edward Vanderbilt and this is Supervisory Special Agent Jennifer Jareau and we're here to talk to you about the disappearance of your daughter, Sarah.

"Come on" he said softly.

"Thank you, can we ask you a few questions about yesterday?" Alex said in the kindest of voices as he and JJ followed the distraught man into the family's living room.

"I was at work" Mr. Dempsey confessed guiltily.

"I understand, but we are going to talk to you about what happened in the days leading up to the abduction. Did you notice if anyone unusual had been in your neighborhood over the last few days? Any cars you haven't seen before in the area that seemed to linger?"

"No, nothing like that."

"Who took Sarah to the park yesterday morning?"

"My wife" Colin Dempsey choked out over a sob.

"Could we please speak to her?"

Mr. Dempsey looked up to the agents, "Do you have any children agent?"

"I have a son, he's five" JJ spoke up.

"My wife is pregnant with our first child" Alex said as he tilted his head to the left and gave the man a small sad smile.

"What would you do if you lost them?" Colin Dempsey asked the duo.

Alex answered for them both, "I honestly could not tell you sir. But I can say that I would do anything I could to help bring them home and the person who took them to justice."

"My wife is in bed, I'll go get her. Sarah, she's my only child. We can't..." he said starting to get choked up again.

"I understand" JJ comforted as he left up the stairs.

"You take the lead with the wife" Alex told JJ who nodded in reply.

Anne Dempsey came down the stairs with her husband. She had blonde hair, blue eyes, and looked almost like an older version of JJ, except she was deathly pale. JJ tried to speak with her, "Mrs. Dempsey, I'm Agent Jareau and this is Agent Vanderbilt and we're here to ask you a few questions about Sarah." Mrs. Dempsey just stared vacantly at the agents. "Ma'am?" JJ asked trying to get her attention.

After spending about 15 minutes trying to coax Mrs. Dempsey into talking Alex whispered to JJ, "We don't have time for this, we need to move on if we have a chance of finding her."

JJ agreed, she hated to admit it but this mother was going to be no help at all to the investigation. Anne Dempsey was blaming herself and as a result was completely lost in her head. They both knew that she wasn't going to open up anytime soon. They were on a ticking clock and as much as they wanted to try to comfort the grieving mother, they just didn't have the time.

* * *

Four interviews later and JJ and Alex still had nothing out of the ordinary. "Well this is a good thing" Alex spoke up when they got back to the precinct.

JJ sighed in frustration, "Why do you say that Alex?"

"No one was stalking any of the victims, it was purely a case of opportunity. Whoever abducted those children is not invested in who he picks." Alex looked at the white board and started running through scenarios in his head. "Which could also be a bad thing because they're not invested in the child beyond their own sexual desires. What would make you do something like this?"

"What?"

"You're somewhat normal, maybe you are a minor criminal, what makes you commit crimes like this?"

JJ was perplexed by his line of thinking and ran her hands through her hair as she tried, but failed, to come up with anything. "I don't know. Alex?"

"You owe someone."

"What?"

"You owe someone your life and you pay them back by doing something like this" Alex said as he turned around to face her.

"How do you know this for sure?"

"Because guilt can make you do terrible things" he said cryptically as he walked to get a cup of coffee. "How much time do we have left?" He asked as he walked back.

"39 hours" JJ replied.

"Fuck!" He yelled as he threw a case file across the room. "Okay what do we have?" He asked as he started pacing.

"Alex we need to get some rest."

"JJ we have less than 40 hours left."

"Yeah and we need to be sharp during those hours, that's why Hotch ordered us to go to the hotel. Go be with you wife" she said pulling the Emily card. She knew Alex could never resist the Emily card.

Alex ran his hands through his hair and interlocked his fingers at the back of his neck. He nodded in agreement to JJ's proposal and grabbed his bag and the car keys. He had to admit he was exhausted and wasn't thinking straight. What everyone else didn't realize was that this was his job before the BAU. You didn't have a hotel most of the time and you slept when the job was done. You took a break only after your target was acquired. But Alex wasn't going to tell them any of that. He wasn't going to tell about how he worked or about how he was taught to get information, because that was behind him. Because the man in the Middle East wasn't Alex Vanderbilt, he was Robert Forrester. It was just like how he would never blame Emily for anything she did as Lauren Reynolds because during that time she wasn't Emily Prentiss, she was Lauren.

* * *

Alex walked into the hotel room to find Emily lying awake in bed. "You're supposed to be asleep" he remarked as he took off his blue shirt along with his red and blue diagonal stripped tie.

"Can you please not" she replied back, still fixated on the ceiling.

"Not what Em?"

Emily sighed loudly as once again her hands moved to her small baby bump. She quietly answered him "Not be here."

"What did I do?" he asked in a soft hurt tone as he got into bed with her and took her cheek in his hand.

"Please stop" Emily requested as she moved away from him.

"I'm not leaving" Alex argued back loudly, he was extremely fatigued and was getting more aggravated than he normally would have. "What the fuck is going on with you Em?"

"Nothing."

Alex scoffed, "Oh yeah nothing."

"Do not try to act like this isn't what you do to me all the time!" Emily shouted to him as she got off the bed and walked over to re-pack her go bag.

"And what the fuck is that supposed to me?" Alex asked as he got off the bed and stood with his arms crossed glaring at Emily.

"Whatever the fuck you want it to mean."

"Where do you think you're going?" Alex asked in a snide tone.

"I'm leaving. God Alex you are such a dick!"

"And you're being a fucking bitch!" Alex countered, immediately regretting the words.

"Maybe I just don't want to deal with you right now. I'm pregnant; I'm exhausted mentally, emotionally, and physically and maybe I don't want to deal with my asshole husband. Maybe I'm tired of being the one fixing everything and want you to be honest and fix things for ONCE!"

"FOR ONCE?!" Alex shook his head in disbelief, "You are being such a…" he stopped himself before he said it.

Emily came back from the bathroom, where she had been gathering more of her things, "Such a what Alex? Tell me. What is worse than calling the mother of your child a 'fucking bitch?'"

Alex looked away from her and laughed, "You are being so ridiculous. What is the matter with you? Is this about the house?"

Emily laughed bitterly and replied with a voice full of venom, "Yeah Alex it's ALL about the house. That's what I'm upset about. Get a fucking clue."

"Well than why don't you tell me. It's not like I'm a fucking mind reader!" Alex shouted vehemently as he raised his arms into the air.

"Oh so now you know how it feels to have someone keeping something from you don't you Edward?"

"Edward? Who are you now, my father? You know what maybe he was right about you afterall!" He yelled.

"And you" she shot back as she grabbed her bag off the bed.

"Where are you going?"

"I told you, I'm leaving."

"The case?"

"You" she snapped back as she opened the door leading into the hallway.

"Oh, so you just use me and when you're done you leave me? You get your baby and then you're done. I should have known from the first night we spent together!" Alex accused before Emily slapped him in the face and slammed the door shut behind her.

"FUCK!" Alex shouted as he picked up a glass and threw it across the room. Alex ran his hands through his hair in frustration, unaware of what he had done to provoke the argument. He leaned against the wall and slid down to the ground as he played with his wedding band. He had fucked up badly and he knew it. He hated himself for it. He hated the way he had talked to Emily, he hated the things he had said to her. He quickly stripped off his clothes and put on a t-shirt, pair of heather grey sweatpants, and a pair of running shoes slamming the door behind him after leaving the hotel room.

* * *

Meanwhile, Emily knocked on JJ's door and the blonde profiler opened up to find her friend on the other side looking exhausted. She looked like she was shaking, her pale skin even paler with dark circles around her eyes. "Can I stay with you?" She asked in such a quiet voice that it was barely audible.

"Yeah, of course, come in" JJ said warmly as she invited her in and led her to sit down on the bed. "Em what's going on with you and Alex?"

"He's been lying to me" Emily uttered just above a whisper.

"Has he been cheating?"

Emily shook her head 'no' in response. "It's about work."

JJ nodded her head as something clicked, "He made a bad mistake."

"He told you."

"That's all he said. Em what did he do?"

"I can't say. I wasn't even supposed to find out."

"How did you?"

"JJ you can't tell him" Emily pleaded.

"Okay I won't" JJ assured her Emily, hoping to calm her down.

"His father."

"He told you?"

"Worse, he showed me." Emily took a deep breath and continued on, "Alex made a mistake back at the CIA and he told me about it, or I thought he did. And I understood because it was a mistake and the stakes are so much higher…"

"I know" JJ said as she squeezed her friend's hand.

"He didn't tell me the whole truth, he let me believe I knew everything for a year. He let me marry him, he got me pregnant while lying to me this whole time. I'm having _his_ baby. What he did, it wasn't really explained in the report, but it was bad" Emily said as she started to cry. "I deserve to know but how can I confront him about it without admitting that I invaded his privacy, that his father was involved? I don't want to be the reason that he hates his father forever. I know that in spite of everything Alex loves his dad and I can't take that away from him" she choked out as she started to sob.

"I don't know Em" JJ said as she put her hands around Emily, pulling her into a hug. "You need to rest though."

"I can't."

"You're exhausted and you need to be able to think to solve this and figure out what you want to do about Alex."

"I-I just, how can I married to someone who has no problem lying to me?"

"I don't know Emily. I do know that you'll figure things out. Alex, well, I'm sure he's still a good guy and I know he loves you. You just need to get the full story, preferably after this case. I don't know what happened but I'm sure it bothers him."

"I know it does" Emily sighed. "And I'm so hormonal…"

"Don't blame this on hormones" JJ sternly told her. "You have a right to be upset and you have a right to insist that he tell you things if they are important, and it seems like this is. But you also have to remember that he's the father of you baby and you can't jump to conclusions."

"I told him I was leaving him."

"Are you?" JJ questioned with an apprehensive look on her face. Were Alex and Emily getting really getting divorced after only 4 and a half months of marriage?

"I meant it about the room, but I think he thinks I meant a divorce."

JJ started soothingly rubbing her back, "When was the last time you slept?"

"Two days ago."

"Emily" JJ scolded gently. "Get into bed now and I'll set the alarm to wake us in 5 hours."

"Okay" she said softly as she crawled into bed with her best friend. "The baby kicked for the first time last night on the plane" she whispered.

"Em!" JJ exclaimed in excitement as she gave her friend a hug.

"Alex doesn't know."

"I know. Do you think you're having a boy or a girl?"

"I don't know."

"Come on you must have a hunch" JJ pushed as she saw her friend start to brighten up.

"I think girl."

"Maybe you can break the BAU boys curse as Garcia puts it."

"Garcia" Emily groaned. "Please don't tell her or Morgan about this okay? I don't want everyone knowing."

"I promise" JJ said before Emily drifted off to sleep.

* * *

While Emily rested with her friend, Alex was running. He wasn't even sure where he was going, but all he wanted to do was keep pushing himself farther, harder, and faster. It was a combination of wanting to clear his mind and wanting to punish himself for how he had treated Emily. His lungs started to burn as his muscles started to cramp. He looked down to his watch to realize that he has been running for almost two hours. He didn't have his phone with him and he was too exhausted to run all the way back to the hotel. "Fuck me" he groaned as he walked slowly down the quiet road to a local shop where he asked to borrow the phone and called a cab to take him back to the hotel. After running upstairs to get some money to pay the driver Alex cleaned up the broken glass in the room. He then took a shower and dressed in a pair of Khakis, a white dress shirt, a orange-red tie, and a pair of brown shoes. After combing his hair he walked out the door and gazed at JJ's closed hotel room door. He took a deep breath and left the hotel, driving himself back to precinct. He made himself a cup of coffee and re-read all the victim case files which cruelly reminded him of the past he had tried so hard to forget.

**Of course there was a big fight, but Alex and Emily do care about one another and this will too be resolved. **

**More about the case revealed in the next chapter as well as an illusion to Alex's past. We're getting to that reveal but it probably won't be until halfway through the story to give you a fair warning. So keep the predictions coming, you might end up guessing it.**


	4. T-Bone Steak and Peter Quinn

**More case time and a flashback to Alex's lunch with a friend from The Finest Trick- Part 1. **

A few hours after Alex did, Morgan and Garcia arrived at the precinct.

"How long have you been here man?" Morgan asked Alex who looked absolutely awful with deep dark circles around his dull eyes.

"I don't know."

"When did you last eat?"

"I think dinner."

"Alex, we both know we didn't have a chance to eat dinner last night. I was with you, I'll go out and get you something to eat" Garcia order as she motioned for Derek to follow her. "Okay so I'm really worried about them."

"I don't know baby girl, it could be just a fight."

"Yeah a really bad one, look at him" Garcia pointed over to Alex who was re-reading interviews again. "He looks like he hasn't slept since 1994. I know that sometimes Emily and him fight but this is beyond a normal lovers quarrel."

"Well what do you want me to do?"

"Talk to him, duh."

"Oh yeah and I'm sure that Alex is going to completely open up to me. He won't even talk to his own wife, you think he's going to talk to me?"

"I have faith in you" Garcia remarked as she walked out the door.

Morgan sighed flustered as he walked over back to where Alex was standing, "Hey you okay?"

Alex let out a breath and shook his head, "No, Emily is really upset with me and I don't know what I did."

"That still?"

"Yeah, she wouldn't let me talk to her. She's beyond pissed and I know I shouldn't be thinking about this now because there are two parents out there that are depending on us to bring home their daughter."

"But you're worried about her?"

"Yeah and I shouldn't be and I just cannot get this profiling. Can you help me out?"

"Yeah sure what you got?"

Alex took a seat as he started to run over what he had so far to Morgan, "Okay male right?"

"Yes."

"Age range?"

"Hard to narrow down with these kids. They're drugged kids, it wouldn't be hard to control them."

"He's explosive, but he's also experienced enough not to leave a print."

"Which means that he is probably at least 25 and would have priors."

"Why Schenectady?"

"What do you mean?"

"Why not a bigger city with more room to hide? Why on the outskirts of Schenectady?"

"He's connected here. He probably has relatives."

"Or here is where his partner lives."

"When baby girl gets back we need to get her to look up prison release records. Probably someone who was just released 6 or so months before the abductions. If his partner wasn't experience they may have needed time to prepare a finite plan, work out the kinks."

"A relative?"

Morgan shrugged, "Probably."

"Orphans?"

"What do you mean?"

"It'd be the ultimate debt, to be raised by your sibling when you had no one else."

"They ask you to pay back the favor by helping them do something."

"And you pay back the favor. It's fucking sick."

"It's also very possible."

"We need to talk to Sarah Dempsey's mother" Alex groaned.

"She won't talk?"

"She's fucking catatonic" Alex complained as he rested his head on the table. "Fuck!"

"What?"

"Who would be at parks everyday and would be able to watch anyone without looking suspicious?"

"I don't know."

"Homeless people."

"You think a homeless person did this?"

"No, but maybe they saw who did" Alex said as he got up from the table and looked for a uniformed officer. "I need a park ranger or park police officer or someone who can tell us which homeless men and women frequent the parks the children were abducted from" he commanded sternly. He walked back to the conference room to find Garcia with a packaged sandwich waiting for him which she tapped on. "Thank you" he smiled.

"So what do you want my chocolate Adonis."

"I don't know if you could handle what I want mama" Morgan replied with a smirk.

"I'm trying to eat here" Alex complained.

"Try me." Garcia continued ignoring Alex.

"Okay baby girl we need men who were recently released from prison who were convicted on child abuse or any sort of sexual deviance charge."

"I already tried that pumpkin, we gots nothing."

"Outside of Schenectady?" Alex interjected hopefully.

"Without parameters that list is going to be in the thousands baby cakes."

"Okay what about orphans who were born in Schenectady or children of single parent households who got into trouble as children."

"Now that I can do" Garcia smiled.

"Disregard last known addresses but see if anyone of our lost children connect with our dear City Council man that Em and you found earlier."

"The Jessops?"

"That's the only pattern. For someone so pattern oriented it must matter" Morgan cut in to answer.

"We need Hotch and Rossi" Alex commented. "How much time do we have Garcia?"

"33 hours."

"Less than a day and half" Alex groaned again. This was becoming a pattern for him.

"What do you want to do?" Morgan asked the younger man, who was technically his boss.

"Interview the homeless and pray that they saw something. That and waiting for Garcia is pretty much the only things we can do."

"Do you want to call Hotch and Rossi and ask them to come down?'

"What good will it do? Maybe fresh and rested minds will help more."

"Agent Vanderbilt?" A young female uniformed officer asked.

"That's me" Alex said barely raising his hand.

"I heard that you need someone to show you around the parks."

"Yes, let's go" Alex said as he rose and the young officer smiled at him before frowning when she caught a glimpse of his wedding band.

"Princess better watch her man" Morgan whispered to a giggling Garcia as the two walked out of the precinct doors together.

* * *

Emily woke up about 5 o'clock afternoon to hear JJ in the shower. She whimpered softly when she tried to adjust her sore back. _This case is a bitch _she complained internally. She felt better physically but emotionally she was still a mess. She was frustrated about her and Alex's fight, and even more upset that JJ knew about it.

"Hey" JJ greeted as she walked out of the bathroom.

"Hi."

"You feel better?"

"Yeah, I'm sorry for bothering you with this."

"Em you're never a bother" JJ smiled. "Did you call Alex?'

"No, it's not the right time. We need to focus on the case." Emily rubbed her eyes, "I have a bad feeling about this one."

"What do you mean?"

"This unsub, the children are his property. He's not going to give them up. If he has the choice of killing Sarah Dempsey or letting her go he's going to kill her because that way she'll always be his. He have got rid of her on his terms, again."

"Well we do have a dedicated hostage negotiator now" JJ said pointedly.

"Yeah not a miracle worker, we should get going. We're down to 30 hours. You think anyone found anything while we were asleep?"

"Honestly Em, I doubt it" JJ confessed.

* * *

Emily and JJ arrived at the precinct at the same time as an exhausted Alex and Officer Mullins.

"Alex you get anything?" JJ asked as Emily continued to meander through the precinct to the team's work space.

"Nothing, we tried interviewing homeless individuals who frequented the park and they all claimed they didn't see anything. Before I left Garcia and Morgan were working on getting a name together" Alex said as the group walked towards to full room to find the entire team there working on various assignments. "Anything?"

"We're working on narrowing it down" Rossi answered.

"Any names on that orphan list of people who may have been treated or medicated for mental health issues?" Emily asked.

Garcia continued typing fervently. "I have thirty-five."

"They would be non-violent, check for OCD."

"7."

"With significantly older siblings who had a prison record."

"None" Garcia huffed.

"What were their parents jobs?"

"What?" Garcia asked in disbelief.

"Jobs."

"Uh okay."

"Just read them off to me."

"Teacher, plumber, electrician, waitress, housekeeper…"

"Stop. Whose that?"

"The housekeeper?"

"Yes."

"Andrea Mackie."

"What's her work history?"

"Emster I don't understand what you're getting at."

"Trust me" Emily requested.

"Oh my god, she worked for the Jessops 25 years ago."

"And she has a son who doesn't have a father listed on his birth certificate, doesn't she?" The rest of the team just watched in awe as Emily worked, especially Alex. He knew he'd never be as good at this as her.

"Yes, Jonathan Mackie is 24 and his mother died when he was 9. He was placed in foster care but disappeared a few months later and was never found." Garcia replied as she looked up at the friend she admired so deeply professionally.

"I bet that no one ever really looked. That is our secondary unsub, we need to break him to get our man."

"Who do you want to do the interrogation Hotch?" Rossi asked.

"Reid and Alex" Hotch replied.

"Alex you take the lead and intimidate him, be the alpha male. Maybe we can get him to confide in Reid."

Alex and Reid nodded as Garcia started trying to find a location on Mackie.

"How did you know?" Reid asked Emily. They all had their moments of genius, but Emily's might have just broken the case for them. Her noticing the patterns of 10 and the Jessops would be instrumental in solving this case.

"It had to do with that house. I would be willing to bet that Mackie is the accomplice of a half brother who was also secretly fathered by Jessop." Emily turned back to Garcia and spoke up, "Any extended relatives of Jessop that have a record?"

"I will get on that as soon as I can find your mystery man."

"No address?" Hotch asked frustrated.

"Nothing."

"Try that other man, maybe he is staying with him."

"Umm okay what are we looking for."

"Any family member of Jessop who was convicted of a crime."

"Okay, let's find this little bitch."

"He's our more dominate partner, he's the one who would be calling the shots" Emily said to JJ who just watched her team members bouncing ideas off each other. Most of the team was talking about the profile but she noticed that Alex was working off instinct. He seldom seemed interested in profiling, but hardly anyone ever noticed because he was so good at his job regardless. She watched a name flashed across Alex's phone when it rang before he silenced it. It read 'Quinn.' _Is Emily wrong? Is Alex having an affair with this Quinn? _She decided to let it go before turning back to watch Garcia typing furiously on her computer.

* * *

_Alex walked into a dark quiet restaurant near Langley, Virginia and smiled when he saw a familiar man sitting at a leather booth by himself. "Quinn."_

_The other man, who was shorter and a little younger that Alex, smiled and stood up, "Alex."_

_Alex sat down as he picked up a menu and ordered a steak. "How have you been, I heard about Car…"_

_Quinn cut him off, "Alex we both know that's not why I'm here."_

_"And why are you here then?"_

_"Come on Alex you're in D.C. not Siberia, I know you can get information. Fuck, you even managed to stay pretty well-informed when you were actually in Siberia" the other man chuckled. _

_"So I'm wagering that this is about HUMINT then."_

_"So you do know about a vacancy coming up in the next few months?" Quinn questioned softly with a small smirk. "I was losing my faith in your abilities."_

_"Why do I associate with you again?" Alex smirked. _

_"Because I'm likable."_

_"That's debatable."_

_"Really Alex, when are you going to stop playing cops and robbers and come back to work?"_

_Alex suddenly became serious, "Peter, we both know it isn't as simple as that. The situation at hand is, complex. And you must realize that the BAU is an elite unit and involves more than just 'playing cops and robbers.'"_

_"Trust me Alex, I know better than anyone the complications. But I also know your training. I know what you taught me. You didn't even show me half of your tricks and, yet, we both know that I know a lot. Fuck Alex, you were just supposed to be on loan."_

_"Well things change" Alex shrugged._

_"Answer one question for me then. Are you happy?"_

_"Yes."_

_"Professionally?"_

_Alex paused before he answered, "You did good in Tehran considering." He sighed as he looked up at the man with the sharp angular features and short dark hair. Alex leaned back in the booth and crossed his arms across his chest, "I heard you're headed to Istanbul. Good luck."_

_"I haven't even made it official yet, how did you…"_

_"Quinn D.C. isn't exactly Siberia now is it?" Alex joked as he rose from the table. _

_"Think about it, it could be a good thing. You'd be good at it" Quinn encouraged as he watched his friend leave the building._

* * *

"I think I've got something" Garcia smiled to the team. "And this family is much more messed up than we originally predicted."

* * *

**If there are any Homeland fans there was your hint from the final chapter of The Finest Trick- Part 1. The mysterious friend 'Quinn' is actually Peter Quinn, so now you know a bit more about Alex's time in the CIA. Although it was never mentioned yet directly, because not even Penelope Garcia could hack those documents, Alex was in the CIA'S NCS Special Activities Division (SAD/SOG), which is why he couldn't tell Emily everything. His past is even more classified than hers. **

**More on Alex's past and the case as we continue. If you do happen to watch Homeland you were given a pretty decent hint during Alex's conversation with Quinn about what Emily found out about him from The Secretary.**


	5. Let's Pretend I didn't Suggest That

**Answers are coming...**

**Additionally there is a lighthearted scene in this chapter, well as lighthearted as it can get at the moment. **

Hotch walked over to Garcia who was staring in shock at the computer, somehow still strangely impressed by her skills. "What did you find Garcia?"

"Okay so I have a search going through all the financials of the Jessop family and we have nothing so I'm going through old associates to see what I can find. We need a large property. Anyway Elijah Jessop has a nephew named Nathaniel Harris aged 38, who was convicted of statutory rape of a 13-year-old girl, he said it was consensual. After he was arrested police also found child pornography on his computer, he served six years in prison. Anyway get this his mother, Elena Jessop-Harris is Elijah Jessop's younger sister and get this too. I went searching through medical files because something about this case is weird, what would be the connection to Mackie right? There has to be a connection. Well guess what dear Nathaniel's blood type is?"

"Garcia" Hotch ordered sternly. They were on a ticking clock, there was no time for theatricals.

"O negative which is like no big deal right? Who cares? But it is a big deal because his mother has A- blood type and hacking into medical records we find that his father, Jacob Harris' blood type is AB+. So how would they have a child together with O- blood?"

"They couldn't" Reid said. "To get a person with O- blood type the parents would…" Reid started to ramble before Emily lightly squeezed his wrist and smiled.

Alex scratched his growing beard, "Incest."

"What?" JJ asked perplexed. In her book an affair did not automatically equal incest.

"Exactly my dark prince, for those still confessed guess whose medical files show that his blood type is also O-?"

"Elijah Jessop" Emily answered.

"Mackie and Harris are brothers…and cousins which is really gross" Garcia replied before making a face. This case was getting more disturbing by the minute.

"And Nathaniel is older than Mackie?"

"By 14 years."

Emily looked over to Rossi who was working on refining the profile, "It would have put him at 23 when Mackie's mother died. They have an obvious connection, the scorned bastard children of a local politician who doesn't want them."

"Harris took in Mackie" JJ clarified. "The ultimate debt" she said after glancing over to Alex, remembering what he had said earlier.

Rossi looked to the white board where Reid was re-writing information, "How did Harris find out?"

Alex looked over to Hotch before answering, "Well isn't that the question of the day. Who told our boys about their father's little secret."

"Use it your interrogation, put this on all him. It could break him when all of these children's deaths become his fault. He's no longer just a facilitator but rather a serial killer" Rossi informed Alex. "Trust the profile."

"Garcia where can we find Mackie?" Hotch asked Garcia.

"According to IRS records Mackie works at a local pizza place today from 10-5."

"Would have put him in contact with children" Emily deduced.

"They would have trusted him" JJ shuddered.

"Morgan and JJ go pick him up, Alex get ready for your first interrogation."

"I appreciate it Hotch but it's not my first" he commented before he went to make himself another coffee.

"Garcia what did you find about Alex's employment history before he transferred here?" Hotch asked the analyst discretely after most of the team dispersed.

"CIA NCS Black ops in the (SAD/SOG) division, I can't find anything specific though. Those files don't even exist in any system, they're all paper files."

"So he knows what he's doing" Rossi commented to Hotch and Garcia.

"As well as we do" Hotch nodded before walking away from the small group. He looked over at Emily and hoped that the case wasn't too hard on her. But if he was honest how could it not be? It was hard on him as well, seeing Jack in those pictures, remembering Haley. He shook his head of the memories and walked over to the local detectives to ask about the associates of the Jessop family. "How much time do we have left?"

"26 hours" Emily answered him.

"Fuck" he mumbled as he walked out of the small room into the bullpen of the precinct. They barely had over a day to find Sarah Dempsey. They were getting close, but would it be close enough?

* * *

"How's Prentiss" Morgan asked JJ as they were driving to Al's Pizza, Fun, and Games.

"Shouldn't you be asking that to Alex?"

"Don't play dumb with me blondie, we both know they aren't talking. How's my partner?"

JJ pinched the bridge of her nose, she didn't want to betray Emily's confidence. "You should ask her Morgan."

"I don't want her to feel like I am prying. I know she's going through a lot right now. I don't want to push her away. I want her to come to me, but in the meantime..."

"Be patient."

"JJ" Morgan said sternly.

"Morgan" JJ warned, returning his tone.

"I'm worried about her."

JJ sighed, "She's struggling."

"You think the pregnancy is making it harder on her?"

"I do."

Morgan gave a small smile, "I really can't wait for her to have the baby."

"Morgan babies don't fix everything" JJ chuckled, what a man thing to think.

"I know that, I mean that she deserves to be a mom. She wants it."

"Yeah she does."

"And Alex?"

"What about Alex?"

"Did he hurt her?" Morgan sounded like he was getting emotional. Him and Emily always had a connection, they were always close. Even after the Doyle incident, in fact they had gotten even closer afterwards.

"Not him, intentionally anyway."

"But someone did? Intentionally that is."

"Someone did" JJ agreed as she thought about Alex's father, desperately conniving to end his son's marriage. The very idea of it made her sick. Thankfully Morgan was silent for the rest of the trip. JJ thought it was probably because he was running through in his mind who could have hurt Emily and how he was going to kill them.

JJ and Morgan exited the SUV and walked into the local business that seemed to be a kid's hangout. "Where's Jonathan Mackie?" Morgan asked sternly as JJ and him flashed their badges.

"In, working the tickets counter" a teenage boy stuttered as the agents left him at the front stupefied.

"Jonathan Mackie?" JJ asked firmly.

"Yeah?" he replied meekly.

"You need to come with us" Morgan said firmly as he walked behind the counter, where Mackie was handing out prizes, and grabbed him by the arm pulling him from behind said counter so JJ could cuff him.

"What did I do?" He asked with his tone full of confusion and fear.

"You know what you did" Morgan answered venomously as he dragged him towards the black SUV.

"Hotchner" Hotch answered his phone briefly before hanging it up and addressing the team. "Morgan and JJ got him. Reid and Vanderbilt, you ready?"

Alex and Reid both simultaneously nodded as Alex looked discretely over to Emily. He fiddled with his tie before walking to the precinct bathroom to fix his messy hair. He needed to look authoritative and fatherly, he needed to get Mackie to talk.

* * *

After depositing Mackie in the interrogation room Hotch and Morgan went to interview the Jessop's assistants and work connections to discover what other properties they might have frequented. Rossi stayed behind to guide the interrogation if necessary. Reid walked into the interrogation room first, sitting down gingerly on the chair across the table from Mackie. Alex walked in next, standing in the doorway rolling his sleeves up and sizing up his opponent. Jonathan Mackie was thin, short, redheaded, and very intimated by the new agent.

Alex crossed his arms in front of his chest as he leaned against the back wall of the interrogation room and smirked at Mackie condescendingly, "Reid I think they brought us the wrong guy. I thought we were looking for a man."

"Ugh" Emily softly moaned as she watched Alex from behind the one way glass with JJ, Rossi was fixing a cup of coffee before the real fun with Mackie began.

"You can't even stand the sight of him now?" JJ asked worried. Was her friend's marriage in worse shape than she realized?

Emily shook her head, "It's not that."

"What is it Em?"

Emily's voice immediately became very low, "You can't laugh."

"Okay I won't. What's up?"

"I hate him so much right now, but I'm really turned on" Emily sighed. JJ moved her hand to cover her mouth to stop from giggling. "You said you wouldn't laugh."

"I'm sorry Em, you're just so pregnant."

"I know" Emily complained as she put her head in her hands. "And I can't sleep with him now because it would send him then wrong message but my hormones…"

"I know" JJ comforted as she lightly rubbed Emily's arm.

"JJ, do you think…" Emily trailed off before blushing.

"Oh my god Emily! Do not tell me you were just going to ask me to have sex with you" she laughed.

Emily scoffed, "No?"

"Emily you little pregnant slut" JJ grinned.

Emily rolled her eyes. "Yeah let's pretend I didn't suggest that, it probably wouldn't be as g…" Emily drifted off when she saw the scowl appear on JJ's face. "What?"

JJ put her hands on her hips, "Wouldn't be as good."

"I didn't say that."

"Well I would be good."

"Fuck me, JJ please shut up."

"Not the best choice of words for this situation Em" JJ winked as she nudged Emily. "Just don't suggest this to Garcia, she'd do it in a heartbeat" JJ chuckled. "That bad huh?"

"You have no idea."

JJ gave her a knowing smirk, "Oh I think I do."

Emily put her hand up, "Please JJ, I do not want to picture you and Will having sex."

"And you think I enjoy picturing you and Alex?" JJ defended.

"JJ do you picture me and Alex having sex?" Emily was shocked at her best friend's inadvertent confession as JJ turned beet red.

"Umm...no" she huffed guiltily as she waved Emily off.

"JJ!"

"What?" JJ asked as she tried to look innocent and thanked God when Rossi entered to join them in the small area behind the interrogation room's single way glass.

"What did I miss?" He inquired as he took a sip of coffee.

"Nothing" JJ spoke up quickly.

**The interrogation will begin at the start in the next chapter.**

**Will Alex and Reid be able to break unsub #2? **


	6. The Interrogation

**The joint Spencer Reid-Alex Vanderbilt interrogation scene. **

**This chapter is also helping the case to come to a close, but not the story just yet. **

"Reid I think they brought us the wrong guy. I thought we were looking for a man."

"I'm a man" Jonathan Mackie quietly argued back.

"Speak up boy" Alex ordered.

"I'm a man!"

Alex scoffed, "You're a man?" Alex walked over to the interrogation room table and slammed it, starling Mackie "You're a man!" He grabbed the file folder and slammed it in front of Mackie, taking the pictures of the victims' dead bodies out and laying them in front of Mackie. "Did this make you a man? Did molesting children finally make you man feel like a man?" Alex walked forward and whispered in Mackie's ear, "Did you get tired of adult women rejecting you, not wanting to touch you, not wanting you to touch them?"

Mackie was becoming furious, "They touch me!"

"No they don't, look at you. They don't want you."

"They don't want you!" Mackie accused.

Alex laughed at Mackie's insult, "Oh they want me. Not to mention I, unlike you, have a wife. A wife that could kick your ass, but that's not saying much. Is that what made you take those kids? Because you wanted to feel like you were in control, like you were stronger than someone."

"No."

"Just once you needed to feel like a man. You needed to be reminded that you aren't this weak, impotent, sad excuse for a real man."

"Don't call me that!"

Alex slammed the table again, "I can call you what I want. And let me tell you something Jonathan, in prison they're going to do so much more to you than call you names. They're going to violate you and show you first hand what its like to be dominated."

"No" Mackie started shaking his head violently.

Alex smiled at him and quietly continued, "Yes. Pretty little thing like you, I give you a day before you are someone else's bitch and then you'll know what it feels like to be a helpless child!" Alex yelled as he re-scattered the pictures on the table that Harris has lined up orderly.

"Stop doing that!"

"Make me, show me who you are" Alex taunted. "You're not cuffed, show me. Show me that you can be a man for once in your fucking life! Show me that you can stand up to someone who isn't a child! Show me Harris!" As Mackie started to cry Alex looked over to Reid who nodded.

"They got him" Rossi stated as they continued watching the interrogation.

"Jonathan" Reid said gently as he lightly tapped the table. "Jonathan we both know that isn't what being a man means. Being a man means taking responsibility."

Alex chuckled at Reid, "Says you." They were both still in character and had to challenge each other in front of Mackie to get him to open up to Reid.

"Ignore him Mackie, we both know that being a man means more than slamming tables."

"Fuck you" Alex snarled at Reid.

"Fuck you!" Mackie yelled at Alex as the team collectively grinned behind the glass. They really had him.

"Mackie we both know what being a man means, which is why you're here. We need your help" Reid continued. "We need help finding the man who hurt these children, we need him to take responsibility."

"I don't know" Mackie said as he looked down.

"Jonathan we know about your brother and we want to help him. We want him to help him not be like you dad."

"My dad?"

"Yeah the man who fucked your mom. The man who didn't want you, Councilman Jessop" Alex interjected. Mackie was already infuriated by Alex and they needed that anger to transfer over to his father. They needed Mackie to turn on his dad and give them a clue about his brother.

"My dad wanted me!"

Alex laughed again at the small man, "There where the fuck was he your entire life? Where Mackie? While your mom was cleaning toilets for a living where was your rich daddy?"

"He wanted me!"

"He probably took one look at you and wanted to vomit. He probably couldn't even look at you without being embarrassed. That's why he couldn't be around you. Men like us cannot be associated with the weak, like his small, sexually repressed son. He just wanted a good fuck and got this" Alex said as he motioned to Mackie's frail body.

"STOP!"

Reid spoke up, "Jonathan, Jonathan, help me. Help me save your brother from turning into them."

"My brother is nothing like them!"

"Good, but you need to help me. You need to help these children, because that's what men do. They protect children."

"Like how your father never wanted you" Alex spoke up from leaning back in his chair, his crossed feet resting on the table in front on him. "Right Mackie?"

"Shut up you!"

"Your dad didn't want you, didn't want anything to do with you" Alex remarked in a matter of fact tone.

"YES HE DID!"

"Prove it to me then!"

"HE DID!"

"PROVE IT!" Alex yelled as he jumped off his chair, letting it fall to the ground, and leaned right in front of Mackie on the table, invading any resemblance of personal space. "You know what I think, I think you ruined your brother's chance of ever having a relationship with his father. I think you ruined everything for your brother because you were jealous."

"I didn't."

"YOU DID!"

"He didn't even know!" Mackie smiled, "He didn't even know who his real dad was until I told him. I gave him the letter, it says in the letter. That's why it's just me and him. There was no dad."

"You ruined his life" Alex accused.

"No I didn't!"

"He had a family and you stole it away from him. You turned him into this incest ridden twisted man. You put him in jail, you did that!"

"I helped him!"

"How?" Alex had him. "How the fuck did you help him! TALK!" Alex once again slammed the table in front of him.

"I got them for him" Mackie grinned evilly. "I got them for Nate."

"Harris, Harris, look at me where is Nate? Jonathan?" Reid was desperately trying to get his attention. "Jonathan you don't want to go to prison and we can help you. I can help you but you have to help me, where is Nate?"

"I did it."

"Where is he?"

"I always liked to hunt."

"Mackie!"

"I killed them, I killed them" he repeated as the realization sunk in.

"Reid" Alex said as he opened the door of the interrogation room. "We need to go."

* * *

"He did it" Reid said as they left the room. "The OCD, the crime scenes, the dump sites, he did it."

"Harris manipulated him."

"And he did it" Reid looked down, "Harris isn't going to pay for this."

"He'll be charged as an accomplice."

"And what if that's not good enough."

Alex sighed, "It has to be."

Alex and Reid met Rossi in the hallway, "You did good."

"Did Hotch and Morgan find any residences they might have frequented?" Alex asked.

"They running through a couple places, but nothing so far."

"What about hunting lodges, like a cabin?" Reid asked. "Mackie said something about liking to hunt. He's the hunter, it's part of his compulsion to appear to be man. Without the presence of his father he experienced an identity crisis in regard to cultural gender expectations. Did he ever go to a cabin as a child?"

* * *

The trio walked into the small conference room they were temporarily using as a workspace. "Garcia anything of the Mackie's family financials that denoted a cabin or a place that could be used to hunt at?"

"Nothing" Garcia groaned after typing furiously.

"What about the Jessop's?" Emily asked.

"Why the Jessops?" Alex asked as Rossi smiled at Emily.

"He's delusional, if Harris had any memories of his uncle, or father with him, Mackie would try to share them with him. He'd try to make them his own" Rossi answered.

"Or Harris could have used them to manipulate Mackie into thinking that abducting children for him would be akin to a hunting trip with their father" Emily countered.

"Either way it matters" JJ cut in. "How much time do we have Garcia?"

"21 hours."

"We might actually make it" Reid spoke up hopefully.

"I think I might have found something in the Harris financials…" Garcia cut in.

**Do you think Reid and Alex make a good team?**

**The next chapter finally features a small Alex/Emily scene where there is no fighting. There also might be a baby name reveal...**


	7. Be Careful

**This a short chapter, but it features an a cute Alex/Emily scene and a name reveal. **

"What do you have Garcia?" Rossi asked as JJ called Hotch.

"Okay so no cabin was ever owned, leased, or rented to the Jessop family, but a cabin outside of town was leased for the entire summer 20 years ago to the Harris family. I guess that the Jessops could have visited."

"Or this was a lie for Harris to manipulate Mackie into helping him" Emily added. "Who owns the property now?"

"No one, the house was actually repossessed five years ago. Two years ago there was a fire, the police concluded that it was occupied by transients who accidentally set the fire. Since then it has been condemned."

"What did Harris do before he went to prison?"

"He was living in Buffalo and, oh my god, he was working as a handyman before he was arrested."

"He probably fixed the place up and has been living there all along after he went off the grid to hide from his parole officer!" Reid exclaimed. "He's been out for five months, that's plenty of time."

"Before then he probably lived with his brother at his apartment, strengthening their relationship and conditioning him" Rossi inferred.

"We need to get to that cabin" Alex spoked up.

After hanging up on Hotch JJ ran back into the room to address the team, "Hotch and Morgan are on their way back, they said for us to give the profile before they come in so we're ready to move out."

"Let's do it then" Rossi instructed as Alex observed the team getting ready. This was the part where he especially felt left out, presenting a profile.

* * *

Once all the officers had gathered Rossi began, "Our unsub is Nathaniel Harris aged 38. He's been to prison before and likely will not want to go back. The effort he's put in to condition someone else to do the abductions for him makes it clear to us that he is extremely dangerous. He will likely choose suicide by cop over prison time, do not approach him alone."

"He has a god complex, he's an egotist and he does not trust authority figures" JJ added.

"He knows this cabin, he knows the terrain and will try to trap you. Like Agent Rossi said, be extra vigilant and do not wander off on your own" Emily spoke.

"He's strong both physically and mentally and will try to outwit you. He will see you as an invader on his property, trying to take away what is rightfully his and will retaliate." Reid concluded about the profile before Alex spoke on a tactical level.

"He's on a time frame but the time-keeper of the team is currently apprehended so he won't care about time or patterns. He won't care about order or what happens to Sarah Dempsey, which makes this extra problematic. According to him this child, Sarah Dempsey, is his property. He will not let her go easily and he would rather have her die on his own terms than give her back to her parents. As mentioned earlier by Agents Prentiss and Rossi do not approach him alone and be weary if you pursue him, he knows this terrain and it could be a trap. The property is 195 acres, all of which we will need to search. Each team will consist of two BAU Agents along with county sheriffs. If there is a hostage situation leave it to your agent, that's all."

* * *

After strapping on his Kevlar vest Alex walked into the conference room and placed a cup of tea on the desk next to Emily. "I don't want to apologize now because I owe you a proper apology for how I acted. I should never talk to you like that, especially now when your pregnant and if anything ever happened to you or our baby, I'd never forgive myself. I know you're not the type of person to get about over trifles and I know what's going on is serious, so I hope that you'll be willing to talk to me after this case is over" Alex said softly before he moved to walk away.

"Be careful" Emily said quietly.

"I will."

"Don't get yourself shot just so I'll forgive you."

Alex smiled as he looked down at the ground. "Are you saying that's not going to work?"

Emily gave him the smallest of smiles, "No."

"Well a guy has to try" Alex cracked before walking out the door before he stopped again. "It's Blair."

"What?"

Alex looked back at Emily who was sitting alone at the conference table. "The name I picked" he said softly before finally leaving the room.


	8. He Said Blair

**Our case is coming to a close, will the team get there in time?**

**The clock is ticking...**

After arriving on the outer perimeters of the property Hotch assigned groups.

"After further assessing the property we need to go in quietly, we don't want to spook him. The local LEOs will serve as support, use your mics to signal if you have found our unsub, Dempsey, or need help. Alex you'll take Reid, JJ with Morgan, Rossi with me, stay together."

Everyone nodded as they moved into their respective pairing, with Alex and Reid taking the south side of the property, Morgan and JJ taking the middle, and Rossi and Hotch taking the north section of the property.

"Which side to you want to monitor?" Alex asked Reid.

"Far south."

"Sounds good, check in every 5 minutes and stay within 5 feet."

"Okay" Reid smiled.

After 35 minutes Alex and Reid still hadn't found any buildings in their section of the property. "You get anything?" Alex asked Reid.

"No."

"This fucking sucks" Alex groaned, prompting Reid to smile.

"Just try to think of it as a nice walk on the beach with Emily" Reid said as he tried to crack a joke.

"Dr. Reid you are a poor man's Emily Prentiss" Alex smiled as the duo kept checking out the property.

A few minutes later they heard JJ and Morgan in their ear pieces, "We found a structure, looks to be a shed. We're going to check it out" Morgan announced. After an additional minute the team was both relieved and disappointed to hear JJ's next words, "Structure is clear. No sign of Sarah Dempsey or our unsub."

"Copy that" the rest of the team said over the mics as they continued to trek through the property.

* * *

"It's hard isn't it" Garcia said to Emily as she put a cup of soup in front of Emily back at the precinct.

"What?" Emily asked absent-mindedly as she listened to the radio communications going on between the team.

"It's hard waiting around while everyone else is out there. Where'd you get the tea from gumdrop?"

"Alex."

"Baby daddy" Garcia smiled. "You worried about him?"

Emily shrugged, "We've been fighting and I keep thinking about something that JJ told me when he was shot."

"What is that?"

"He asked her if he told me that he loved me" Emily shook her head, "I guess you always worry. What if it's the last time."

"It won't be" Garcia said as she took Emily's hand.

"That's the thing Pen, you can't promise that. No one can."

"Did you not tell him?"

"No" Emily replied softly.

"Did he tell you?"

"In a way…he didn't say it directly but he kind of did."

"What did he say?"

A small smile appeared on Emily's face, "He said Blair."

"Blair? Is that an acronym?" Garcia asked as she started trying to work out the meaning, "Blair, B-L-A-I-R, Babe let's ass it right?"

Emily started laughing, "Yeah PG Alex just said to me before he left, 'babe let's ass it right.'"

"Well to be fair it is something Alex would totally say. And seriously honeybun, he knows. He knows you love him Em." Emily nodded and smiled before Garcia continued speaking, "And now you need to eat your soup for the sake of my mini gumdrop, before it gets cold."

"I'm not hungry."

"Emily Prentiss I went out to buy you and my baby that soup, which by the way is tomato bisque and guaranteed to not make you sick, so I expect you to eat it" Garcia ranted.

Emily laughed and rose his her hands in surrender, "Yes ma'am."

"So when are you doing your ultrasound?"

"I have to reschedule it."

"What are you hoping for?"

"Girl" Emily chuckled.

"He's going to love that baby so much Em." Garcia remarked as a light went off in her head.

"Yeah, but he did say that if it wanted to go to Harvard instead of Yale he'd disown it."

"Blair! He finally told you the baby name! O-M-G it's perfect. Blair Vanderbilt, queen of all D.C. babies…" Garcia drifted off.

"Penelope, you can't tell anyone, okay?"

Garcia laughed, "Okay, by the way Emster your new house is gorgeous."

"I haven't even seen it" Emily admitted.

"Let me show you some pictures" Garcia offered as she got up and walked towards the computer stopping when they heard the normal team check-ins over the radio interrupted by a sinister voice.

"You have 60 seconds. 60, 59, 58, 57…"


	9. Take The Shot

**What happens when our case draws to and end?**

** This is a purposely short chapter. **

"Copy that" Alex replied to JJ's check it. "Fuck, Reid do you think he's really here or are we just wasting our time?"

"I hope not."

"How many hours do we have? Just in case."

Reid looked down at his watch, "Umm, 18 hours, 47 minutes, 32 seconds."

"Thank you Reid" Alex smiled. Most people would have just said 18 hours, but not Spencer Reid.

"You're welcome."

It was an exhausting process, clearing the property through the many bushes and trees. The man concern was that the unsub could be anywhere on the property and surprise the agents. Although no one wanted to admit it, it was possible that Sarah Dempsey was dead already. To try to lower the risk of a surprise attack the team has to clear the property acre by acre in the same painstaking slow fashion they did a home, guns drawn as their eyes roved about the area. Alex was especially frustrated by this method, it wasn't the way he worked. He without a doubt had more field experience than anyone else on the team, even Emily. Nevertheless, he was paired with the least experienced field agent and if Alex operated the way he normally did Reid would be put at risk. He didn't move as fast or as stealthily as Alex. Soon the minutes turned into an hour and after finding himself on the other side of a group of bushes Alex spoke up to check in with Reid after the usual five-minute mark.

"Anything Reid? Reid?" Alex was starting to get concerned as he turned away from facing his section, putting himself at risk. "Reid?" He asked looking at a open field with no sign of the young genius. "Fuck! Reid! Reid!" Alex started yelling. He hoped to God that the ubsub wasn't on his right side because he was completely blind on that side, as he was wholly focused on looking for Reid. "Reid where the fuck are you?" He started running to where he last saw Reid, "REID! FUCK!" He screamed as he tried to contact the rest of the team. Before he got the chance a menacing voice cut through the silence.

"You have 60 seconds. 60, 59, 58, 57…"

Alex couldn't find Reid and the taunting countdown continued as he tried to radio the team, "Reid is gone, does anyone copy? Fuck!" He yelled when he realized that they couldn't make out what he was saying over the loud counting. He started running throughout the clearing until he saw a barn that Reid must have seen. "FUCK! DOES ANYONE HEAR ME!" He screamed in frustration as he continued running towards the barn with his gun drawn. "DOES ANYONE HEAR ME, REID IS GONE! I'M APPROACHING THE BARN!" Alex finally made it to the rundown greying barn and entered cautiously through the open door, finally paying attention to the seconds that the man in front of him was reading off to him.

"25, 24, 23, 22…"

* * *

Reid felt odd, he felt weak but somehow was still standing. He tried to remember what had happened, tuning out the counting he heard. He had checked in with Alex a few minutes earlier, hadn't he? They approached a bushy are and Alex offered to switch sides with him but he declined and kept pressing forward. And that's when he saw it, a crumbling barn. It was off in the distance and before he had the chance to alert Alex he heard a noise. It sounded like a cry and in one of the few moments in his life, Reid didn't think. He remembered running towards the barn with his gun drawn and before he had a chance to check in over to the mic everything went black. That's when Reid started to panic as he opened his eyes and felt a sharp pain in his neck as blood began to spill out. He heard Alex yelling over the persistent counting.

"23, 22, 21, 20…"

"PUT THE GUN DOWN HARRIS, IT'S OVER!"

Reid looked over and realized the predicament he was in. His Kevlar vest had been stripped off, he had been beaten, he had been tied up, he was restrained in a headlock, and a knife was pressed against his carotid artery. The man holding the knife must have been Nathaniel Harris. His hot breath was touching the back of his head. More blood spilled out of the superficial wound on his neck as Reid looked down to see the dirty fingernails that belonged to his captor. Reid moved just slightly and that's when he saw it. That's when he realized that even though Alex was there everything wasn't going to be okay. Because Harris wasn't only using Reid as a human shield, pressing a knife to his neck, but he had a gun in his other hand. A gun that was pointing to Sarah Dempsey's drugged body lying near the side of the building. And that's when Reid decided, "Alex take the shot!"

"10, 9, 8, 7…"

"ALEX!"

"6, 5, 4…"

"ALEX TAKE THE SHOT!" Reid pleaded as he screamed.

"3, 2, 1…"

Reid felt his body drop as one shot rang out before another instantaneously cut into the momentary stillness.


	10. Fatality

**A big clue is contained in this chapter. **

Alex vigilantly entered the barn, following the sound of continuous taunting as the seconds ticked by. After Alex entered into the barn he wanted to vomit at the sight. There were signs of the earlier victims all over the room, and off to the side on a mattress laying on the floor was a three-year old blonde girl, Sarah Dempsey. She was still breathing but Alex knew the situation was dire. He was down to 20 seconds and he weighed his options and was disheartened when he realized he had none. Reid was restrained and groggy. There was no way he could wiggle out of Harris' grip. Harris must have been at least 6'4" and must have weighed about 300 pounds. Reid was currently being used as a human shield and his face perfectly protected the face of Nathaniel Harris, to the point where Alex couldn't even make out his features. He was probably the best shot in both the CIA and the FBI and, yet, Alex knew he couldn't get a shot off. He would hit Reid and as the bullet would pass through him Harris would have the chance to shoot Sarah Dempsey anyway. So Alex did the only thing he could do to prevent having two casualties, he waited. The problem was that all three of them knew that he didn't have infinite time.

"13, 12, 11…"

"Alex take the shot!" He heard Reid beg. But he knew he couldn't, it would kill Reid and Dempsey.

"10, 9, 8, 7…"

"ALEX!"

"6, 5, 4…"

"ALEX TAKE THE SHOT!" Reid pleaded as he screamed. Alex clenched his jaw as he relied on his training, but he knew. He knew that it was over for one of them, the one that Harris cared most about.

"3, 2, 1…"

Harris moved slightly as he shot Sarah Dempsey, wanting to take one second to look at his _toy _before he ended her life. In that one second Alex took the shot, but Harris had already squeezed his own shot off before Alex's bullet had left his gun.

Reid felt blood all over him, but it took only a second to realize the blood wasn't his and the reason he had fallen was because Harris must have pulled him down with him when he was shot. Reid opened his eyes to see the scene Alex already had.

"We have a three-year old girl, Sarah Dempsey, she, she, gun shot wound to the head" he choked out into his mic as the pool of blood behind Sarah Dempsey's head on the stained mattress continued to grow.

"What did you do?!" Reid yelled to Alex who was hopelessly trying to stop the bleeding. "I told you take the shot" Reid cried. "I told you! I TOLD YOU!" He screamed as he continued to sob. _Was this my fault? _

Morgan and JJ were the first ones in the barn, as Hotch and Rossi were farther away. They had partly heard Alex's calls over their earpieces and had spent the next few minutes desperately trying to find the barn. When they entered they saw Reid in the middle of the barn, sobbing on the ground next to Nathaniel Harris who had a bullet lodged in his left eye. Off to the side they saw Alex trying to apply pressure to Sarah Dempsey's fatal gunshot wound.

"Get Reid" Morgan commanded as he walked over towards Alex.

JJ ran to Reid and cut off the ropes to untie to him before guiding him away from the scene. "I told him" Reid kept repeating to her as she tried to calm him down. _What the fuck had happened in that barn?_

Hotch and Rossi arrived next and as Rossi made his way inside Hotch said softly to JJ, "Stay out here."

JJ just nodded as she sat with Reid, who was still crying.

Morgan checked Sarah Dempsey's pulse and concluded that she had probably died instantly as he looked to Alex, whose blue eyes were tinted red with tears that had yet to fall. "She's not bleeding anymore" Alex said quietly.

"I know" Morgan answered in a kind tone as he tried to get his own emotions under control. He respected Alex for not emptying his entire clip in Harris.

"Morgan, I-I couldn't do anything" Alex stated as he looked up from Sarah Dempsey's body and stood up.

"I know."

"I talked to her parents…" Alex drifted off as CSU came in to take pictures of the bodies. Alex walked off towards the door before locking eyes with Rossi, who just nodded sadly at him. They all knew that there was nothing Alex could do, the profile had always claimed so. Alex walked out of the barn doors as Reid noticed him.

"I told you to take the shot!" He yelled. "You let her die! You waited…"

"ENOUGH!" Hotch shouted as he glared at Reid. "Reid the paramedics are here, go to the hospital and get checked out. Now!" Alex looked down at the ground as Hotch continued, "JJ go with him."

JJ nodded and looked over sympathetically to Alex who had taken a deep breath and run his blood stained hands through his hair. She wondered if there would ever be a time when any of them could forget about what happened in Schenectady.

* * *

Garcia looked over to Emily with concern. She and Emily had been terrified when they heard the counting down, and even more terrified when they heard Alex desperately trying to get the team's attention as he was searching for Reid. Emily's heart seemed to stop beating when she heard Alex announce that he was going into the barn alone. They had waited in agony as silence permeated the normally noisy police precinct. Emily thought she would brief a sigh of relief when she heard Alex's voice over the intercom, but it just the opposite.

"We have a three-year old girl, Sarah Dempsey, she, she, gun shot wound to the head."

After hearing those words Emily's mind began to race as fragments of sentences from the redacted CIA file flooded back into her mind. _Operation successful. Targets Terminated. Lead Agent Robert Forrester. Collateral damage. Child fatality. _

**There's the last hint about Alex's past before all is revealed in the next chapter. **

**And yes Reid is lashing out at Alex, but he does have a history of doing that when he's involved in something traumatic. Resolution is a far way off ****though. **


	11. The Truth

**The case has finally come to a close and now the story behind the Robert Forrester file will finally be revealed. **

**Will Alex and Emily make up?**

**Will Reid realize that there was no way Alex could have saved that little girl? **

Morgan and Alex walked in silence to the Bureau SUV to drive to the hospital. However, Morgan broke the quietness, speaking up as they pulled away from the newest crime scene. "You know no one would blame you if you didn't come and went back to the precinct."

Alex sighed, "I should have watched him better."

"You can't be responsible for everyone."

"He was my agent."

"Alex, Reid can be impulsive in the field. We all know this, sometimes he is left unaffected and sometimes he isn't. That's just the job" Morgan spoke remembering what Emily had told him once. "He doesn't really blame you, he just needs someone to blame and you were there."

"I couldn't take the shot" Alex replied quietly. "It would have hit Reid first and given Harris the chance to shoot Sarah Dempsey anyway…"

"Alex we both know that unless the unsub was separated from Dempsey it was highly probable that this was going to happen. It was in the profile, Reid knew it too."

Alex gazed out the window, "He begged me to take it."

"And you wouldn't beg for the same thing?"

"I would" Alex let out a deep breath. "Reid is the agent I was 10 years ago, fuck, he's the agent I still am sometimes. But you get to the point where you have to accept that sometimes you're presented a choice where there are no good options. A choice where you get to choose bad or worse. Where you're forced to choose bad as the better option."

Morgan just nodded as they continued their drive in silence. He understood what Alex was saying. Alex didn't want to hear the seconds tick on as he was forced to stand idly by while a little girl was executed in front of him. But what could he do? It was either have one fatality or two, and he made the right choice. He chose the one. But that didn't make it any easier. Reid didn't make it any easier. After pulling into the hospital parking lot Morgan waited for Alex to exit the car before sending a text to Emily.

**I know you're fighting but Vandy is in a bad space. Sarah didn't make it, Reid blamed Alex. Fill you in when you get to hospital- M.**

* * *

As soon as he walked through the hospital's front entrance Alex was met by Hotch.

"You're going to have to make a statement to the local sheriff and then Strauss. She called a few minutes ago and there will probably be an official FBI inquisition" Hotch informed apologetically. _Just what the team needed, Erin Strauss breathing down their necks_ he thought to himself.

"I understand" Alex confirmed with a nod.

"The local sheriff and a county attorney are waiting for you in a hospital conference room but we can try to put it off until…"

Alex interrupted Hotch, he just wanted to get everything over with. "I'll do it now."

"Are you sure?"

"Yeah. How's Reid?"

"Concussion, bruised ribs, small cut on his neck, other than that he's physically fine."

"Emotionally?"

"JJ's with him."

Alex merely nodded as he walked off to ask a nurse where the conference rooms were so he could make his statement. Hotch just shook his head as he watched his newest agent walk away. He hadn't seen his team this fractured in a while, but he knew that Reid was trying to cope the best he could with something horrific he had just witnessed. He knew that Alex had seen worse in the field, but that didn't make him lose any sympathy for him. He knew better than anyone that you just couldn't save everyone. Alex had saved Reid but he couldn't save Sarah Dempsey, and for Reid that just wasn't good enough. To be honest, it probably wasn't good enough for Alex either.

"Spence" JJ coaxed gently as Reid waited to be discharged, sitting in a gown on the examination bed. "Spence what happened?" Reid wouldn't talk to her and she was concerned about his emotional state. Sure she was concerned about Alex too, but Reid was different. He was more fragile and he probably blamed himself for living while Sarah Dempsey died. "If she had lived, her life, it would have changed forever" JJ admitted.

"He didn't give her a chance."

"Harris" JJ nodded.

"No, Alex."

"Spencer" JJ softly scolded. "Spencer, we both know that isn't true."

Reid looked away from her, "You weren't there JJ, he hesitated. He had a chance."

JJ just lightly shook her head in response. Alex was a lot of things, but he didn't hesitate. He tools calculated risks in the field and she knew if there was any chance he could have made the shot he would have taken it. JJ also knew that somewhere inside Reid knew it too.

* * *

"What are you thinking gumdrop?" Garcia asked as she and Emily pulled up the hospital.

"Alex" Emily admitted.

"You think he's okay?"

"How could he be?"

"Is your fight on pause?" Garcia inquired hopefully.

Emily lied, "Yeah." The simple fact was the case only exasperated the fight they were having. What happened in Islamabad? And for that matter, What happened in that barn? Was Alex the sort of man who would just let a child die? Were they expendable to him? Questioned raced through Emily's head as she walked into the hospital waiting area where she saw Rossi. "Reid?" She asked him.

"Getting checked out, he's been beaten up but is fine."

"JJ?"

"With him?"

"Hotch?"

"Went back to precinct to finish up the paperwork and close the interview with the retired local notary. She handled Andrea Mackie's will and had a record that showed that Mackie left her son a letter. We think she wrote who her son's father was in it and left it to him when she died."

"Then he showed it to Harris."

"And then Harris figured it all out. He probably already had psychopathic and predatory tendencies but this further triggered them."

Emily nodded in response to Rossi's conclusion. The case was closed and it made sense, well as much sense as a case like this could. Emily looked over to Morgan and Garcia talking before she turned back to Rossi, "And Alex?"

"He had to give a statement, but he's probably done by now. No one has seen him since. Reid had an outburst, there's been some tension" Rossi was definitely downplaying what happened to Emily. "I would check the chapel" he smiled.

"Alex isn't really that religious."

"But he also isn't much of a talker and no one would bother him there" Rossi smiled. "I would be willing to bet that our Alex would rather deal with religion than talking about his feelings."

Emily returned his smile as she walked off to find Alex.

* * *

A few minutes later she saw him sitting in a pew with his head in his hands. "Hey" she greeted him in a kind soft voice.

"Hey" he replied ever quieter than her.

"I'm not the biggest fan of these places."

"Well if we both happen to burst into flames we're at least close to a burn unit" he tried to joke with a smile that didn't quite make it on his face. "I need you to know that I tried, I really tried and if I had at least a 1/16 of an inch more of space I would have taken the shot. I would have taken it" Alex defended.

"I know" Emily said as she tried to comfort him.

Alex took a deep breath, "I need you to know because I made a mistake before, in Islamabad that I didn't tell you about. I didn't tell you the whole story" he confessed as he continued to stare straight ahead. "After Agent Tehrani, Aram, was killed I was furious. I let my personal feelings, anger, dictate my professional decisions. There was no doubt that we couldn't get another inside man in the terror cell and no one would be willing to inform on them after what happened to Aram. I convinced my superiors that the cell needed to be eradicated while we still knew where the elders were living. It was the right decision from a purely operational standpoint and my superiors agreed with it. But that wasn't why I really wanted to do it. I wanted to do it because I was enraged and wanted revenge for what they did to Aram, what they did to me. I wanted to fix things and I fucked up. I convinced my handler that I could lead the operation and because I had the most experience and knowledge he agreed." Alex sighed before continuing on, "We were on a strict timeframe, we wanted to move before they relocated. Over the next two days as we prepared I received two pieces of intel that confirmed that all seven targets were living in the home. On the third day I received a report that there were eight people living at the residence, but I wanted to move at 3am the next morning. I didn't have time to re-check it and assumed the data was faulty. It must be an error I thought so we moved the next morning. It was a small team of only 3 agents, including myself. I was tasked with taking out 3 targets on the second floor of the compound. I cleared the top floor and took out my three guys until I heard the sound of a matchstick in the other room. I went in the hallway and heard a door open and took the shot before I realized who it was" Alex started to cry. "It was a 8 year boy. I shot him in the head" he choked out as he started to sob. "I-I didn't know. He was the 8th man in the house. I shot him in the head and I didn't know what to do. I tried to do CPR but I kept hearing in my earpiece that all targets had been terminated and we need to get out. He was already dead."

"Alex" Emily gently said as she took his hand in her own. _How could his father torture him over something that had obviously destroyed him? How could she have believed for even a second that Alex would have ever hurt a child on purpose?_

"He was the nephew of the currier. He arrived with uncle after his uncle had made a drop. That's why we did know" Alex said quietly. "I would never do that again. I know Reid thinks it was my fault but I would never…"

"I know" Emily reassured him. "Alex look at me" she tenderly instructed him as he turned to face her. "Why didn't you tell me earlier?"

"You risked everything to save a little boy, you would do anything for a child. How could I tell you what I did?"

"It was a mistake, a bad one but it was a mistake."

"Emily everything else that happened, the bomb wasn't completely my fault and I get that Aram wasn't either, but this? This is on me. I can't forgive myself for this and I won't. I don't want to make peace with doing this" he firmly stated.

"I know."

"I can't still feel like I'm a person if I just accept this."

"I know" she repeated as she fixed a strand of his blood stained hair. "What happened in the barn?"

Alex rubbed his face, "Reid went off on his own and was captured by the unsub. Reid thinks it was him or the girl, but Emily I'm telling you if I had taken the shot it would have without a doubt hit and killed Reid first and then…"

Emily completed his sentence, "It would have given Harris enough time to shoot Sarah Dempsey anyway."

Alex nodded, "It was either Reid and Sarah dead or just Sarah. I know it so fucked up but…"

"But those were the choices. Alex you made the right decision and anyone else with half a brain would have done the same. Reid will see that, you should talk to him."

"I don't know if that's a good idea."

Emily smiled, "Well why don't we leave this chapel before you end up cursing again."

"I'm sorry for what I said to you at the hotel" Alex spoke up as he looked down to his feet. "I didn't mean any of it."

"I know."

"I love you so much and I don't know why I would say those things to you."

"Because we know what to say to hurt the ones we love the most."

Alex ran his hands though his hair nervously, "I don't want to know that though."

Emily just gave him a small smile, "Well that's kinda too bad. And let's not forget that I said some pretty horrible things to you too."

"My favorite was asshole husband" Alex laughed.

Emily playfully hit him, "Alex we are in a church!"

"This isn't a church."

"It's a chapel, that's close enough."

"Hey," Alex stopped her before she got up. "Why were you mad at me? We both know that if you're waiting for me to figure it out on my own I'll never get it."

Emily looked at her husband with guilt in her eyes, "I found out about Islamabad but I didn't know the entire story…"

"You found out that I had misled you."

Emily shrugged, "Yeah. I'm sorry I shouldn't have invaded you privacy like that."

"You shouldn't have but I have feeling you had help from a certain diabolical Secretary. Why didn't you tell me?"

"I didn't want you to feel like you had to choose."

"You know I love you more than anyone else in the world right? I will choose you every single time."

"That's the point Alex, I don't want to ask you to choose."

"Well he did and I choose you and our family over whatever he is" Alex smiled as he put his hand over her small baby bump. "I can't have him meddling in my life. I don't want him in our life."

"He's your dad" Emily argued.

"Emily, he's never really been a dad to me."

"So you're not made at me?"

"Not this time" Alex told her with a small smile. "But if you ever pull this again not even the Emily Prentiss smile will extinguish my fiery indignation" he joked.

Emily rolled her eyes, "Whatever."

"I am serious though, you can't keep things like this from me. Only I know how to deal with the Blue blooded Beelzebub."

Emily raised her hand, "First I think I could handle your father and second Beelzebub?"

Alex chuckled, "To your first argument, yes you could handle my father but you would end up killing him and I can't be a single father. Whose going to help me raise our baby? I'd have to date Garcia!" Emily started laughing, "And to your second question, my mother was Roman Catholic so yeah I know Beelzebub." Alex leaned over to kiss Emily's left temple, "I love you so much."

"I love you too."

"You're perfect."

Emily smirked, "Obviously."

"You are" however, the happy conversation shifted back to being a one filled with the utmost seriousness. "What's going to happen when I leave here and it's not just me and you?"

"I don't know baby, talk to Reid. He'll understand."

Alex nodded as they left the chapel hand in hand as a feeling of relief washed over Emily. "You can tell JJ if you want, I know she's been worried."

"Are you sure?"

"Will she understand?" Alex questioned in an apprehensive voice.

"Without a doubt, any other secrets I deserve to know?"

"I'm afraid of moths" Alex confessed bashfully.

"Moths?"

"I don't trust flying creatures, they're crafty! I don't what they do with their life." He defended.

Emily started laughing at his confession, "Maybe you should have kept that one a secret."

"You're a cruel woman Emily Prentiss" he grinned as he kissed the tip of her nose.

"Which is why you love me" Emily replied smugly.

"Because what sort of moron would actually want a kind wife? I mean what a loser" Alex shot back sarcastically.

**Now that the truth is finally out Emily can finally forgive Alex. But will Reid be as receptive as her?**

**Also now that we know Alex's past let's go through a few of the subtle hints I've left in this series so far. **

**1.) In the first story Alex is apprehensive about raising children and worries that Emily wouldn't want to have kids with him.**

**2.) Alex is exceptionally intense on this past case that was involving children. The only other case where he was so consumed was the undercover cop case, which he was also connected to. In the story it said that the children's files reminded him of something in his past he wanted to forget.**

**3.) Alex tells JJ about guilt making you do unthinkable things (he's referring to the raid on the Islamabad residence that he insisted on leading out of anger because of what happened to his agent.)**

**4.) During his conversation with Peter Quinn he starts to bring up Caracas, Venezuela, where Quinn made a similar mistake in Homeland. **

**5.) And of course the biggest clue was when the words from the redacted file ran through Emily's head. **

**So there you have it, the truth is out. And in case you're wondering Peter Quinn does come back into play. I never like to leave a set-up unused and this one is no exception. **


	12. London?

Once they walked back to the waiting room Alex and Emily were approached by Hotch, who had just finished up at the precinct. "Everything seems pretty cut and dry here, the sheriff is confident they have a pretty tied up case, plenty of evidence and a confession from Mackie. The parents of Sarah Dempsey have been informed, we're going to head back to Virginia tomorrow morning at 8am. Alex can I speak with you?" Alex nodded as Hotch and him walked a small distance away from Emily who was approaching JJ.

Alex analyzed the small room, "Where's Rossi?"

"Arguing with Strauss, Reid is claiming that you could have taken the shot."

"I know."

"Could you have?"

"There would be extra body if I did. Hotch, we all knew before we went in how this was going to end if the unsub was with Dempsey. If they were together the likelihood of getting her back was very slim" Alex remarked firmly.

"We did, but there is going to be a formal inquisition. It isn't even because of Strauss. A child is dead and there are politics involved."

Alex nodded, "I know better than anyone that someone will have to be held responsible over threat of public outcry."

"The Bureau thinks they can keep this quiet, but…"

"Someone will be disciplined."

"Yes."

"And ultimately the only ones who know what happened in that barn will be questioned, which is Reid and myself. And that means that it's my word against his."

Hotch nodded, "We're going to try to talk to him but you need to prepare yourself for a possible suspension."

"I understand."

"I'm so sorry you've been put in this position and we'll try to fix this."

Alex gave Hotch a small smile, "Aaron, we both know there's nothing that can be done to fix this."

Hotch agreed sadly, "Rossi thinks you'll get a month, Reid maybe 2 weeks. You need to know he's not doing this out of malice."

"I know, he's trying to do what he thinks is right. He really believes, or at least wants to believe that there was a chance."

"Sometimes you have to accept that there isn't."

Alex scratched his scruffy jaw, "But is there a harder lesson to learn?"

Hotch swallowed as he looked the other agent in the eyes. He respected him for protecting the team, protecting Reid, for being understanding. It was what he would have done, "Alex, you should get some rest. We both know you haven't slept since this case started."

Alex looked over at Emily who was in a deep conversation with JJ.

* * *

"Where's Reid?" Emily asked as she walked up to her friend who had just gotten off the phone with Will.

"Hotel, Garcia and Morgan took him. I wanted to wait for you, how's Alex?"

Emily sighed, "I think he's going to be okay. It was a tough case for him and even without Reid's accusations Alex always blames himself when things go wrong."

"Are you still fighting?"

"No."

"What happened?"

"JJ if I tell you, you can't tell anyone" Emily sternly instructed.

"I won't."

"Alex was on an assignment a few years ago and he made a mistake that left a child dead. It wasn't exactly his fault but it sort of was, if that makes sense…"

"Kind of" JJ said as she tilted her head in confusion.

"It wasn't on purpose or anything but the whole operation was fucked up, which was partly his responsibility."

"I know that Alex would never hurt any innocent person purposefully. But you weren't sure?" JJ stated more than she asked.

"I read the file and it didn't really explain what happened, or it did and the copy that Secretary Vanderbilt was allowed to take home was partially redacted."

"Do you think he knows the whole story, Alex's dad?"

"Definitely" Emily answered without a doubt. "He was just trying to play me and it worked. But this case has been hard enough on Alex and so have I without having Reid accusing him of allowing Sarah Dempsey to die!" Emily exclaimed, getting irate.

"Emily you know that Reid went through something that was traumatic."

"And so did Alex" Emily adamantly replied as her voice suddenly became extremely quiet, "and we both know that Reid took off on his own without letting Alex know and partially put Alex in that position."

"Emily" JJ scolded.

"JJ we both know that he can make rash decisions in the field."

"As do you" JJ countered.

"But I never claimed that any of you were the reason a victim, let alone a three-year old, died."

"You just insulated that about Spence."

"JJ I honestly believe that if the unsub was with Sarah Dempsey that there was a very slim chance that she would be able to go home to her parents alive. We both know this. But being completely honest, do you think that Reid's poor judgement could have made things worse? Don't you think that having two agents, or maybe the entire team, instead of one would have made things more manageable?"

JJ looked down at the floor when she realized Emily what getting at, "We both know it. I'm just worried about Spencer."

"And I am too, but I'm also worried about Alex. Reid isn't the only victim of this situation and Alex would never try to gain any sympathy over it but I know he's upset. He's not going to show it like Reid but he saw that little girl die in front of him too."

"I know, Morgan said that he looked so…lost. I just felt that because he's seen things before…"

"JJ it doesn't work like that, sometimes having seen things before just makes it worse because it brings back horrific memories that all compound together. And on top of all of this Alex is dealing with Strauss, who has a vendetta against him."

"Hotch thinks he could be suspended."

"Fuck" Emily groaned, "I cannot deal with another art and crafts phase."

JJ laughed, "It'll be okay. I know that you're upset with Spence, and if I'm being honest I think he's upset with himself too, but try to be understanding."

"I do understand" Emily nodded. "I love Reid but that doesn't excuse what he said."

"Do you think Alex will forgive him?" JJ asked hopefully.

Emily smiled, "Alex is pretty forgiving and he has a soft spot for Reid. Alex probably would have done the same thing as Reid when he was younger. It's unfortunate, but you learn from mistakes. It's just that with our job, the mistakes often equate to loss of life. But I think they'll be okay, they just have to stick together to survive Strauss."

"Safety in numbers" JJ chuckled.

* * *

It was about 10pm when the rest of the team finally made it back to the hotel and Emily opted against watching TV, as most of it was "breaking news" about the case. All she wanted was to forget about the case. Emily took a shower before Alex, who had to return a few calls from the their realtor. After Alex showered he got into bed with Emily, who was laying on her side. He slipped an arm under her neck and wrapped his other arm around her waist.

"You always smell good" he remarked as he breathed in the scent of her shampoo.

"You do too" she responded with a tired voice.

"So when were you going to tell me about that call from Clyde Easter?"

Emily laughed, "How did you know about that?"

"I have contacts."

"In Interpol?"

He chuckled, "I can't reveal my secrets. But really Em, are you thinking about it?"

"The BAU is home and we're having a baby."

"Yeah you're right, I'm pretty sure London is a baby free city" he teased. "I think you have to leave them at customs when you get to the airport."

She hit him playfully on the arm, "Shut up. Plus we just bought a house."

"Good point, if only there were people whose entire jobs consisted of selling houses."

"You're such a brat."

"Seriously, Emily I want you to know that you pretty much solved this case. It was your hunches and your profiling skills…"

"It was everyone" she interrupted him.

He kissed the base of her neck, "You would be a great team leader."

"I don't think it's for me. Plus you wouldn't have a job."

Alex pulled Emily closer to him as he ran his fingers over her baby bump, "I would just have to be a kept man. A trophy husband." Emily laughed at his suggestion. "So did you miss sleeping with me?"

"What did JJ tell you?"

"JJ didn't tell me anything" Alex grinned as Emily turned over to face him.

"What are you trying to say then?"

Alex smirked as something clicked, "I was talking about sharing a bed but I'm thinking that is not what you were referring to. You sly little minx did you ask our blonde friend, the godmother of our future child to help you relieve some tension?"

Emily blushed, "I would never."

"You did!" Alex teased as he started to tickle her sides. "You know what I'm okay with that" he said with a twinkle in his eye.

"Shut up" she commanded as she hit him on the chest.

"I'm going to ask her now."

"Alex!"

"Oh JJ" Alex pretended to call out as Emily wrapper her arms around his neck and kissed him, dancing her tongue along his lips before he quickly allowed her access.

She repositioned herself to straddle him as she leaned over to whisper in his left ear, "No more teasing. I need you." He chucked softly as she started to run her hands down his body while his hands drifted under her shirt.

* * *

The next morning started off comfortably enough, Emily called her OBGYN to schedule a new ultrasound appointment while Alex received a call from Strauss that informed him that the next day he would have to provide an official statement to her. Based on what Reid and him said the investigation would either proceed or conclude. Alex waited for JJ in the hotel lobby while everyone else filtered into the two SUVS.

"Hey" he smiled as he looked up to her.

"Hi, how are you?"

"I just got off the phone with Strauss so what does that tell you" he joked.

She smiled at him, "Are you okay?"

Alex looked up at the ceiling and took a deep breath, "I'm relieved that Emily knows the truth about what happened but I'd be lying if I said I want concerned about tomorrow."

"You know it's not your fault right?" JJ tried to assure Alex. She had grown really fond of him and saw him as a brotherly figure.

"I know, this time I really do know. There's only one person to blame and that's Harris. Well, him and his sick fuck of a brother."

"Morgan said he was impressed that you didn't empty your entire clip into him."

Alex shrugged, "It wouldn't have changed anything, just wasted a few bullets."

"About Reid…"

Alex smiled when he raised his hand to cut her off, "He's doing the best he can, considering. What else can you do? You do what you think is right."

"He's not right."

"I know" he smiled at her. "But everyone is wrong every once in a while, even Spencer Reid" Alex commented as he picked up JJ's go bag for her and walked to the car to join Garcia and Emily, who was driving.

* * *

The plane ride home was exceptionally awkward. Emily and Alex sat with Morgan and Garcia towards the back while JJ tried to sit next to Reid, who moved away from her to sit alone. Hotch and Rossi observed the team with a heightened sense of urgency. How were they going to fix this? How were they going to protect the team? Hotch worried less about Alex and more about Reid, who he felt was more delicate than Alex. He worried about Reid turning back to drugs during the inevitable suspension. However, Rossi was concerned about Alex. Alex was brooding, dark, and tortured by his past. A past that transformed him into a guardian over the ones he cared about. It was as if Alex Vanderbilt had seen the worse the world had to offer and as a result felt compelled, no obligated, to protect everyone else around him. Alex Vanderbilt was the man that was called upon to "fix" things and Rossi worried that he would do so again, at great personal cost. Because David Rossi could see that Alex was the sort of man that would sacrifice anything to make the world marginally better for a person he cared about. Rossi observed him gazing out the window, clenching in jaw over and over again, contemplating his options. And both he and Rossi knew that he didn't have many.

"Are you going to talk to him?" Morgan asked Alex quietly after Emily had fallen asleep, leaning on Alex's shoulder.

"About?" Alex whispered back.

"What happened."

Alex took a deep breath and crossed his arms, "I'm not going to ask him to lie."

Morgan argued louder, "Alex we both know it isn't a lie."

"He thinks it would be."

"I don't think he's going to say anything to put the blame on you with Strauss" Garcia cut in, "Maybe around us but not with Strauss."

"I think baby girl is right."

"Think?" She teased.

"I know" he said with a smile.

Alex lied, "I don't so either. I think he just needs time to sort out what happened."

"She's cute when she sleeps" Garcia spoke up as she pointed to Emily.

"That's the only reason I married her" Alex said with a smirk.

"Vandy, when are we wainscoting?"

"Morgan can't we just hire someone, like an actual professional?"

"I'm basically a professional."

"'Basically' being the operative word. We're all basically a something. Garcia's basically a sexual deviant."

"I told you about having to go to that sexual harassment seminar in confidence, Derek!"

"What?!" Alex questioned as he moved his hand to cover his mouth to stop from cracking up. "Now I'm offended because I thought it was only me and Morgan that you sexually harassed."

"And by the way I was reading that in some cultures it is customary to name a baby after its godfather."

"Oh yeah like we're going to do that. What if it's a girl?"

"Dereka."

Garcia cut in, "Can you imagine Alex raising a daughter?" Both Garcia and Morgan laughed as Alex scowled.

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"Oh come on my dark prince, it's not like you're the best with feelings."

"Yeah Vandy, you'd be all, 'you have feeling? Don't have those.'" Morgan teased as he and Garcia started to crack up laughing.

"I know about feeling and emotions" Alex claimed as he heard a stifled laugh coming from Hotch. "What the hell Hotch?"

"Sorry Alex" Hotch shrugged much to Rossi's amusement.

"I know about feelings and emotions and hormones and tampons!" Alex replied defiantly as JJ started to laugh and Emily woke up.

"Alex why are you talking about tampons?" Emily questioned with a grin.

"Because these bunch of naysayers, Debbie Downers, and Negative Nellys say that I can't raise a daughter who has feelings."

Emily laughed, "I know you're going to be such a mess."

Alex glared at her in disbelief, "I hate you all." He then looked to Emily who was thoroughly amused, "And you. I'm cutting you off" he smirked as her face fell.

"I'm pregnant!" Emily argued.

"Well, then you better ask JJ again" Alex smiled with an evil grin.

"AGAIN?!" Morgan and Garcia simultaneously exclaimed as they turned around to face a red-faced JJ while Emily whacked Alex on the arm.

**Strauss returns and how will Alex and Reid's careers fair? ****Any guesses? **

**Personally, I hope I can leave you surprised.**


	13. Walking Away

**Fall-out.**

"Dr. Reid I am going to get to the point rather quickly here. Do you believe, in your professional opinion, that the death of Sarah Dempsey could have been prevented?"

"Yes."

"Would you care to elaborate?"

"I believe that Agent Vanderbilt made an unintentional tactical error."

"He made a mistake? He hesitated? Is that what you're alleging?"

"I'm not alleging anything."

"Dr. Reid we are not questioning Agent Vanderbilt's character, I highly doubt that any agent would allow a child to die on purpose. However, in regard to your official statement, do you believe that Agent Vanderbilt made a critical error that led to the death of Sarah Dempsey?"

"Yes."

"Thank you Dr. Reid. You are excused for the remainder of the day, and be sure to be present tomorrow for your 8am debriefing with Agent Hotcher. You may go now."

* * *

Alex stood anxiously in the hallway outside of Strauss' office. He was fiddling with his wedding band thinking of Emily, who was in Baltimore on a consult with Morgan. The other team members' statements were brief, as they weren't in the barn with Alex and Reid. Alex was wearing a charcoal grey suit with a white shirt and a black tie. Alex watched Reid briskly walk by as he entered into the room. He took the seat across from her as he addressed her, "Ma'am."

"Agent Vanderbilt" she replied in the same firm tone that Alex used.

"What happened to Dr. Reid?"

"He was sent home for the day, possibly longer after our conversation." Strauss crossed her hands on the desk, "Agent Vanderbilt a child is dead."

"I am aware."

"Someone needs to be held responsible."

"Nathaniel Harris and Jonathan Mackie."

"You know what I mean."

"I do."

"Were you distracted?"

"Ma'am?"

"Were you distracted when you entered into the barn?"

"No."

"Agent Reid claims that you hesitated."

"He is mistaken."

"He alleges that a critical error on your part led to the death of Sarah Dempsey."

"I don't know what to say ma'am."

"Agent Vanderbilt, I am going to be very frank with you, off the record, of course. We have had our disagreements but I truly believe that you are a talented agent, exceptionally talented. Dr. Reid, on the other hand, is a more complex case."

"He's an extraordinary profiler."

"But we both know that does not always equate with being the right fit for the Bureau. Look at his mentor Agent Gideon if you need an example."

"I don't."

Strauss sighed, "Agent Vanderbilt, Spencer Reid is prodigious, yes, but with mental illness in his family it is entirely possible that he is not stable enough for field work, for the Bureau."

"What are you saying."

"I am saying that as of now it is your word against his. An official inquisition will lead to nothing as there are no other witnesses to what occurred and no physical evidence to prove if you had an opportunity to discharge your weapon before Mr. Harris did. As of now the results of this investigation rest solely on the word of one agent against the other. The word of a consistently regarded agent, who two intelligence agencies battled over, and a young man who despite being brilliant could very well be mentally unstable."

The office was dark somehow, even though it was still the middle of the day. Outside the office doors the FBI hallways were bustling with the usual movement, the usual agents moving through and through, trying to fulfill their assignments. Through those ordinary double glass doors the BAU team was working on paperwork and trying to forget then latest horrors they had just witnesses, trying to stop themselves from doubting if they could have handled the case differently. If they should handled if differently. As their thoughts drifted to him, a firm voice spoke up. "Agent Vanderbilt I will ask you again on the record. What happened in Schenectady?"

Alex swallowed lightly before uttering his next words, "I hesitated."

"Agent Vanderbilt this is on the record."

"I'm aware ma'am."

Strauss sighed as she pinched the bridge of her nose, "Agent Vanderbilt is that your official statement? Are you admitting to being at fault?"

"Yes, ma'am. It was a grave error."

Strauss took off her glasses, "If this is the case I am going to have to ask for your resignation."

Alex nodded as he stood up from the chair. "Thank you for the opportunity ma'am" he politely said as he offered his hand to shake Strauss',

"Send me a formal letter tomorrow and hand your credentials over to Agent Hotchner."

"Yes ma'am."

Despite her problems with the young agent he was extremely capable, but the allegations made by Spencer Reid forced her hand to discipline someone. It was either going to be Dr. Reid, for a lack of judgement and a false allegation, or Agent Vanderbilt, for making a critical error in the field that led to the death of a child. Agent Vanderbilt had chosen himself. Before Alex left the room Strauss spoke up with her voice laden with disappointment, "I hope you know what you're doing Alexander."

"As do I" Alex said softly as he left the office and walked to those familiar BAU glass doors.

* * *

Alex walked to his desk and took out his gun, badge, and handcuffs. He has never been more grateful that he never decorated his desk with anything, he wasn't used to having a desk so his didn't have any personal items he needed to collect. Alex walked up to the catwalk, past Rossi and JJ's offices and knocked light on the door to Hotch's office.

"Come in." Alex walked in and gently placed his things on Hotch's desk, not bothering to sit. "Alex what is this?"

"I will be sending in a formal letter to Strauss tomorrow."

"What happened?" Hotch asked apologetically.

"Sarah Dempsey died" Alex simply replied. "I want to thank you for the opportunity."

Hotch stood up to shake Alex's hand, "For the record, I've considered working with you a privilege."

"Likewise sir" Alex smiled before he moved to open the door.

"Alex before you go, what happened to Reid?"

"He should be back tomorrow for the 8am debrief."

Hotch sadly nodded at the man before him before he left the office, just that short sentence told him all he needed to know about what happened. JJ quickly followed Alex when she noticed him walk by, watching him walk out those BAU doors for the last time.

* * *

"Alex" JJ yelled as she saw Alex walking towards his car in the crowded parking lot. "Alex" she called out again before he stopped.

"JJ."

"You get suspended?"

"Kinda" Alex shrugged.

"What do you mean?"

"Strauss asked for my resignation."

JJ looked shocked, "What does that mean?"

"JJ, you know what it means."

"You don't work at the BAU anymore?" Alex nodded in reply. "How do we fix this?"

"We can't."

"There's always something" JJ said as she frantically started walking back to the building to confront Hotch and Rossi.

Alex walked behind her and lightly grabbed her wrist, "JJ you can't."

"Why?!" JJ yelled.

"Because then Reid would lose his job."

"W-what do you mean?"

Alex sighed, "Reid said that I made a mistake and because he did, it was his word against mine. If he was right than I would get fired. If he was wrong than Strauss was going to fire him for being mentally unstable, which would have caused him to make a false official FBI report. There was no way we could both be right."

"But Alex…"

Alex cut her off, "Reid defines himself with this job. Being a profiler is his identity as much as his name. If he was fired from the Bureau do you honestly think he'd be okay? This is who he is. And I-I'm not a profiler."

"Yes you are" JJ argued.

"I'm not, I'm an agent but I'm not a BAU agent. I'm a special agent with good instincts, but I'm not a profiler."

"He was wrong though."

"That doesn't matter anymore. Don't you see JJ, it doesn't change anything. If Reid retracted his statement it would like his emotions got in the way on a case and, additionally, put another agent's job in jeopardy. He would be fired."

"But he did!"

"That doesn't matter!" Alex nervously ran his hands through his hair, "JJ, there comes a day when you realize that no matter what you do you are not going to save everyone. And for the longest time, maybe even forever, that day is the worst day in your life. We both know on the Harris case that there was nothing that could be done to save the day. Nothing that we did mattered when it came to saving that little girl. But maybe Reid doesn't know that yet and I don't want to take away that hope and innocence from him because once you lose it, it's gone. And maybe Reid hasn't lost it yet and if he hasn't, then he's not going to lose it today, not from me."

JJ had tears in her eyes as she pulled Alex into a hug, "You're a good man and Emily is lucky to have you."

"Jareau we both know I'm the lucky one." Alex stepped back and gave her a smile, "You need to head back to work before you're unemployed too."

"What you did for Reid not many people would do that, remember that."

Alex opened his mouth to argue against the statement and closed it, opting instead to give JJ another smile before he went back to this car and drove home.

**I'm thinking of what I want to do after this series, which would you rather read a Emily/JJ story or**

**a love rectangle (love triangles are so overdone) crossover with Homeland? Or maybe a MI-5 (Spooks) story with Emily at Interpol?**

**Let me know in the comments section. **


	14. Reid

Emily walked into the apartment earlier than usual to find Alex sitting with Sergio on the sofa checking his emails. "Hey baby" she greeted as she leaned over to kiss him. "Anything good?"

"Christian Mingle has some interesting offers" he grinned.

She playfully slapped his shoulder as she walked to the kitchen to get a glass of water, "So what happened at work today? You get fired?" she laughed as she sat down next to him.

"Well…"

"Alex?"

"Not technically" he replied softly.

"What do you mean not technically?"

"Strauss asked for my resignation, which is what I was working on before you got home."

"What the fuck?"

Alex scratched the hair behind his ear, "Yeah I have no job."

"What if you called your…"

"Do not just tell me you were going to suggest that I call up Satan's right hand man to get me my job back. What am I supposed to say, 'hey dad you know how I always say stay out of my life? Well can you fix this for me?'"

Emily laughed at Alex's response, "Do you want to talk about it?"

"There's not much to talk about."

"Alex" Emily sternly commanded an answer.

"You can't get all pregnant lady mad."

"Okay I won't get 'all pregnant lady mad' whatever that's supposed to mean."

"It means I'm worried about Reid's safety."

"Why?"

"Because his statement implicated me as making an error that led to Sarah Dempsey's death."

"Why didn't you dispute it?"

"I tried at first and Strauss actually wanted to help me, but to undo what Reid did she was going to write it up as him being mentally unstable which led him to lie on an official FBI inquiry statement and then he'd be fired. I say this in the kindest way possible, but the kid kinda fucked me over."

"Fuck" Emily huffed.

"Yeah but we both know that this job was always just a job for me, not like Reid who defines himself by it."

"Yeah I know, but, fucking Reid."

"Emily, he didn't know. He thought he was doing the right thing."

"How are you not mad?"

"I feel bad for him, it was a tough thing to go through. To see a child die in front of you, to wonder if it was partly your fault. To wonder what you could have, should have done. I know that better than anyone."

Emily nodded, "I know."

"So here we are."

"Well what are you going to do?"

"I guess take care of the baby?"

"Yeah it's not coming out for 4 more months though."

"Baby proof?"

Emily laughed, "4 months to baby proof? What are you an idiot?"

"I guess I could work with Will" Alex grinned.

"Right" Emily rolled her eyes.

"I could strip" Alex smirked.

"I'd give you money for that" Emily grinned back.

"There you go, I already have another job lined up."

"Really Alex what are you going to do?"

Alex shrugged, "I don't know."

"Do you have any leads?"

Alex looked down at his watch and sarcastically replied, "You know what? Surprisingly after a whole four hours I don't have any leads on a new job."

"Shut up" Emily laughed.

"Why are you so worried about this?"

"Because we're having a baby."

Alex looked at her confused, "And? It's not like we need the money."

"Yeah but I'm pregnant and I cannot handle another Alex goes crazy while not working phase."

Alex laughed, "Well I can do all the baby stuff for us, like buying all the baby crap."

"Okay" Emily chuckled at his idea.

"And going to all your prenatal appointments will be no problem."

"That's a plus."

"And I can move us."

Emily smiled, "That will help."

"And cook."

"You can't cook."

"I can go out and buy cooked food."

"Okay."

Alex moved behind Emily's neck where he began kissing the soft skin, "And I can do this."

"Mmmm" she moaned lightly.

"And this" he said as he sucked the skin behind her ear, prompting her to moan again as he moved his computer out of the way. A little while later Emily was close to orgasming before they heard a knock at the door.

"We heard about what happened and we brought pizza" they heard Garcia yell through the door.

"Fuck" Alex groaned.

"Baby I'm so close" Emily whined.

"You guys we know you're upset" JJ yelled next.

"COMING" Alex laughed as his hand was pressed over Emily's mouth to stifle her moaning. "Get dressed" he instructed her quietly as she just laid there. "Emily" he quietly scolded.

"Hold on" she ordered as she laid back down on the sofa.

Alex opened the door a few moments later looking absolutely perfect, as usual, but Emily's flushed appearance gave her away.

"Well what did we interrupt here?" Garcia smirked.

"Where is the third stooge?" Alex asked, referring to Morgan.

"Talking to Spence, he feels really bad now that he knows."

"Well, he should" Emily replied, "He's a real dumbass for being a genius."

"Well, yeah" JJ admitted as they made their way into the apartment.

"So gumdrop, do we want to sit in the kitchen instead of on that?" Garcia asked as she pointed to the sofa.

Alex groaned in embarrassment as he motioned for the friends to follow him into the kitchen, much to their amusement.

* * *

The next evening Reid heard a knocking at the door and was surprised to see Alex when he opened it.

"Typically when one brings beer to another person's house the homeowner invites him or her in" Alex smirked. Reid left the door open as he walked into his living room. "Well this is very hoarder chic" Alex cracked.

"I'm sorry" Reid meekly said.

"Why weren't you at work today?" Alex asked as he sat down on the sofa.

"I don't know" Reid said with a shrug as he looked down at the ground.

"Don't bullshit a bullshitter, I'm the king of 'I'm fine' and 'I don't know,' so talk" Alex commanded in a very fatherly manner.

"I got you fired."

"Reid" Alex said gently, "You didn't get me fired."

"What I said did."

"Listen Reid, you did what you thought was right at the time." Alex took a deep breath before he carefully continued, "Why did you say it though?"

"I thought that if it was your fault, then I could pretend it wasn't mine."

"Reid it wasn't your fault."

"It was" Reid said softly.

"Why do you think that?"

"Because I ran out without telling you."

"Reid, you did what you thought was right at the time. And sometimes our instincts are right and we succeed and sometime they aren't. That's just life, no one is right all the time. Saving Sarah Dempsey was next to impossible and that's not your fault." After looking into Reid's say eyes Alex knew what he had to tell him. "You know what I did before I worked at the BAU?"

"CIA Black ops."

"Yeah, when I was in charge of a task force and I made a bad mistake. I wanted to fix it so badly so I tried and I fucked up. I mean bad fucked up, people died, I lost an agent, a child died." Reid looked up for the first time to face Alex as Alex took a drink of beer and went on, "I hated myself for a long time and part of me is still mad at myself for making that mistake. But I never made a mistake like that again. I realized that you do the best you can with what you have at the time and sometimes it doesn't work out. But one lapse in judgment does not define you, what does is your behavior afterward. Now you know what to never do again, so you don't do it. You learn from it so you can save the next person."

"And what about you?"

"I got all I ever wanted out of this job" Alex smiled.

"So you're not mad at me?"

"I've been there before. How could I be mad at you for doing the same thing I would have done 4 years ago?"

"And Emily?"

Alex laughed, "Emily's pissed."

Reid gave a small smile, "How do I face her?"

"You apologize. Emily is, well, Emily and she'll understand better than you'd think" Alex said as he patted Reid's knee. "Go to work tomorrow or Strauss will fire you and then I will kick your ass" he quipped as he got off the sofa.

"Alex, thanks."

"Well I stole most of this talk from someone else who had it with me not so long ago" Alex smiled.

"Who?" Reid asked before Alex stepped out the door.

"Emily."

* * *

As Alex walked out Reid's door he received a phone call, "Vanderbilt."

"I heard."

"It's been over 24 hours, I'm losing faith in you" Alex smirked.

"Well I've been working."

"I'm sure of it" Alex chuckled.

"You should make the call."

"I think I am." A small smile made its way across Alex's face, "I hope the rules haven't changed."

"We both know that you always made you own rules."

"See you around."

"I look forward to it."

Alex smiled as he hung up the phone and headed home to Emily.

**Who was Alex talking to on the phone? Predictions?**


	15. London

**We're wrapping up the Alex and Emily series. It's been fun, but it will also be fun to move on to something else.**

**Your suggestions about the different options I'm working with are still welcome in the comments section.**

**I'm thinking of working on the Homeland sort-of-but-not-really crossover first and an Emily/JJ thing later, but I'm still debating on how I want them to play out so it could switch. **

It had taken a short while, about three weeks, before Emily forgave Reid for the FBI statement that cost Alex his job. Ultimately it was Alex who convinced her to forgive Reid, as he just wanted to move from the situation entirely. Alex had reminded her that he never wanted to be in the BAU to begin with, and only really stayed for her. In fact, Alex ending up in the BAU to was just a case of him running from facing the mistakes he had made in the CIA. A week later Emily and Alex decided to invite everyone, including Reid, to the Cape to decompress from the stresses that had compounded over the few weeks prior.

"Remember the first time we came out here?" Garcia mused as she sat on the same chair she did over a year and half ago.

"Yeah, pretty boy caught Alex and Emily in the shower together" Morgan laughed as Reid gave him a dirty look.

"Alex told me that he was just really dirty" he whined as the team laughed at him.

Alex and Emily's Cape Cod house was filled with JJ, Will, Henry, Garcia, Kevin, Reid, Rossi, Jack, Hotch, and Beth. Fortunately, the kids had already gone to sleep before Garcia started passing out the wine to everyone by the fire pit.

"Alcohol by an open flame is always such a good idea" Alex cracked as Garcia handed him a glass.

"Shut up Alex before you ruin it for us all when Spence goes on his fire safety tangent" JJ complained as she whacked Alex on the shoulder.

"So Alex when are you going to get a job? It's been like 6 weeks" Morgan asked.

"I'm Emily's trophy husband, my job is looking good to remind everyone how rich she is."

"Shut up Alex" Emily playfully scolded as she started to laugh.

"I totally knew they were dating last year" Garcia grinned with pride.

"No, you didn't" Emily argued.

"When Alex asked you that three-way question I could tell."

"Three way?" Beth inquired as Hotch looked extremely uncomfortable.

"Remember the airplane incident?" Garcia giggled.

"I still can't believe you had sex in my office" JJ chastised Alex and Emily.

Hotch choked on his wine, "What?!"

"I forgot you weren't there" JJ frowned looking at Hotch as she glanced over at Emily apologetically.

"Dumbass" Emily teased.

"Really Alex how's the job search going?" Rossi cut in.

"Umm" Alex stuttered as he looked over to Emily.

"Are you going to ask you dad?" Will asked before everyone gave him a perplexed look. Will wasn't the most intuitive, or most intellectual, man in the world.

"I'd rather put my head in a guillotine" Alex remarked prompting laughter from the group.

"You always did have the flair for the dramatics preppy" Emily chuckled. Alex glanced over to her and she gave him a knowing look.

"Alex how did you know you really liked Emily?" Beth spoke up as the group turned to look at him.

Alex flashed as grin as his eyes lit up, "We were in the conference room and I confronted her about leaving me the night before, without a so much as a note mind you!"

"Emily!" Garcia yelled.

"What?" Emily asked as she raised her arms into the air defensively.

"She wouldn't even tell me her last name, I had to call her miss-terious" Alex cracked to the amusement of the group.

"You would" JJ laughed.

"So how did you know" Reid reiterated Beth's question.

"I told Emily that she used me for my body and she told me and I quote, 'please, your body is at best an 8.'"

The group erupted into a fit of laughter and Morgan was the first to speak up, "Damn Princess that's cold."

"And that's when I knew she was different, because she actually made me chase her" Alex smiled.

"So my dark prince, why did thou invite us out here?"

Alex looked over at Emily who nodded, "We have good news and bad news, which is good news but just masquerading as bad news for now" he confessed.

"Which do you want first?" Emily asked as she watched her group of friends.

"Good news" Rossi requested with a smile.

"You know what a going out of business sale is?" Alex questioned as Emily shot him a dirty look.

"Do not describe this as that" she sternly ordered.

"That's what the doctor said" Alex defended.

"Ugh" Emily groaned. "Okay so you know a month ago how we went to find out the sex?"

"Yeah and you wouldn't tell us. We remember that" Garcia said pouting with her arms crossed.

"We were just processing our news."

"Is it both?" Morgan asked with a look of shock.

"NO!" Alex and Emily yelled in unison.

"No you idiot, will you just let us finish" Emily ordered as she tried to continue. "Well, we had gone earlier to get an ultrasound and the technician had said we were having twins but when we went back the doctor said she probably just saw the same baby twice."

"OH MY GOD TWIN ONE ATE THE OTHER ONE!" Garcia shrieked in horror.

"How would that be good news Pen?" JJ questioned as she rolled her eyes.

"Oh my god! Alex" Emily looked over to her snickering husband, signally for him to finish.

"We heard that from the shower last time" JJ quipped.

* * *

_"Well I for one am __happy" Alex said proudly as he almost skipped from Emily's OBGYN's office to their car._

_"I am too, but just apprehensive" Emily admitted as she started to once again chew on her fingernails until Alex took her hand into his and kissed her wedding band._

_"Why?"_

_Emily looked up at him with worry in her eyes, "Are we ready for this?"_

_"Yeah."_

_"I-I don't know if we are, it's more than we expected."_

_"Emily we both wanted more than one child anyway, this way you don't have to go through being pregnant or having a baby again. To me it seems like we hit the jackpot." A grin shot across Alex's face and Emily feared what he was going to say next. "You should thank me."_

_Emily scoffed, "Oh I should, should I?"_

_"Definitely, because I'm good."_

_"How can you take credit for my reproductive system?"_

_"Because you asked for one baby and I gave you two" he smiled._

_"Technically I'm giving you two" she shot back with an equally big smile. _

_Alex nodded and stopped at the car as he started to scratch the hair behind his ear, "What do we even do with twins?"_

_"I have no fucking idea" Emily laughed as Alex opened the car door for her. _

* * *

Alex tried to continue over the group's laughter, "When we went to find out the sex we found out they were twins all along. Because of Emily's going out of business uterus sale something happened with two eggs, I don't remember what exactly but we do know we're having twins."

"First" Emily interrupted, "I told you not to call it a going out of business sale and second he fainted at the doctors" she laughed as Alex turned red.

"I was surprised!"

"Oh my god now JJ gets to be a godmother with me" Garcia squealed, "unless…"

"No Garcia you have to share our babies with JJ" Alex commanded before he realized what he said. "My god what has happened to me?"

Morgan laughed as he patted the younger man on the back. "What are you having?" JJ asked in glee.

"Boy and girl" Emily smiled.

"Yay!" Garcia yelled. "JJ can have the boy" she casually added.

"We were thinking Garcia and Rossi for our daughter and JJ and Morgan for our son. If you want Rossi" Emily politely added. She was worried that she was asking for too much, but she had always seen Rossi as a sort of father figure.

"Of course" Rossi smiled as he moved to give her a hug.

"Why not me and Morgan as godparents for princess super spy spawn?"

"Because we need at least one normal godparent per child" Alex joked.

"Hey!" Morgan complained.

"What's the bad news?" Kevin asked.

"Well…" Alex drifted off before looking to Emily and then Hotch.

"Alex was offered a job" Emily began before being interrupted again.

"What kind of job sleeping broody?"

"I can't say too much about it, but it's the London CIA station chief, mostly focused on working in counterintelligence in connection with MI6."

"London?" JJ asked shocked. "But how are you…"

"That's what we wanted to talk to you about. A couple of months ago Clyde Easter called me and offered me the job to head up the London Interpol office and at first I wasn't sure if I wanted to do it but…" Emily sighed, "I love the BAU and I love you all but after Doyle I felt like I need a new start. I did get that with Alex but I want to move on from those memories completely before we have our babies. I feel like a new city and a new place is a good way for me to move completely away from that part of my life. And when I talked to Alex about it he admitted that the CIA had been dangling a job in front of him and it just felt right. The day after being let go he got a call from his friend Quinn and we just knew it was the right move. It's less travel, we'll be home more, London has great schools..."

"Our children will have British accents and will sound posh" Alex added.

"We really hope you won't be mad at us."

"When, when did you decide this?" Morgan questioned in a sad soft tone.

"We've been talking about it for a while, but we didn't want to say anything before we officially made our minds up. I just turned in my letter of resignation this Friday."

"Is this because of me?" Reid asked softly.

"Reid there are a million reasons why this is best for us and what happened in Schenectady wasn't one of them" Alex assured. "I was never meant for the BAU, to be honest I didn't really know what I was doing outside of working with my instincts."

"Some instincts" Rossi smiled as he nodded over to Alex.

"I love what the BAU gave me but I've been in the CIA too long to just give it up. It's who I am. I had considered transferring out as soon as Strauss moved me here. I didn't because I met Emily, but now it's the right thing for me. It's the right move for us."

"What about your house?" Will inquired.

"We might keep it, I'll have to come to D.C. every one in a while for meetings."

"Rich people" JJ teased as she poked Emily on the arm.

"Assaulting pregnant women, nice Jareau" Emily shot back with a grin.

"I can't believe it. Are you taking my babies with you?" Garcia asked her friends, completely shocked by the news.

"You can come see us anytime you want Pen, and they'll need to know all their BAU family because to be honest, Alex and I have no other friends."

"And we're very off-putting so it's not like we're going to make any new ones" Alex cracked with a grin.

"When are you leaving?" Morgan spoke up.

"I'm leaving in 4 weeks because I start sooner and Alex is going to meet me in 6 weeks. He's supposed to pack up our house, so JJ I am depending on you to make sure he does" Emily said pointedly. "My mom is in London now so she's supposed to help us pick a house so God knows what we're going to get."

Hoping to disturb the silence Alex cut into the gloomy mood, "Now you all know that the last time I saw my father Emily and I absconded with a bottle of 'Scrooge McDuck scotch,' as Emily calls it. What a better time than now to drink it?"

"Exactly!" Rossi exclaimed with a smile.

Alex walked inside and came out with the bottle, which he poured out to all the team members, save Emily who hated scotch even when she wasn't pregnant.

"Magnificent" Rossi commented as the rest of the team looked into their glasses.

"This is shit" Alex remarked which earned him a laughing agreement from the team.

"You my son have no taste" Rossi commented as he took the bottle and Garcia's glass before she had a chance to taste it.

"Hey!"

"You wouldn't appreciate it darling."

Soon Emily spoke up seriously, "I hope you all realize that you're our family and that will never change no matter where we live."

"I'm really happy for you princess and Alex. I going to miss you like crazy, but I, we all want you to be happy" Morgan spoke for the group.

"We never doubted it" Alex smiled.

"To new beginnings" Rossi said as he raised his glass, as the others followed his lead.


	16. Epilogue

7 months later

"Help us" JJ heard from the other side of her front door. She opened it to find Alex and Emily with two babies and their hands full of bags.

"Why do babies need so much stuff, they're so small" Alex complained as he and Emily trudged into the Virginia house.

"Where's the nanny?"

"St. Bart's" Alex laughed.

"How was the flight?" JJ asked with a grin.

"Don't even ask until after I'm drunk" Emily joked as she plopped down on JJ's sofa.

"Where'd you get the shiner Alex?" JJ questioned of Alex's black eye.

"Where do you think?" he murmured as he pointed his head towards Emily.

"Em!"

"What? We were training!"

"Em remember when you almost broke Alex's hand during the delivery?"

"I can't believe I thought it was cute the first time you beat me up" Alex joked as he held his 3 month daughter on JJ's sofa as JJ was holding his and Emily's son. Their daughter looked like almost an exact replica of Emily. She had big brown eyes, long raven hair, and Emily's porcelain skin, except she had Alex's nose. Their son, on the other hand, looked a bit more like Alex, sharing the same bone structure and eyes, with Emily's hair color. Alex had said on many occasions that they were the most perfect children he had ever seen, and would never admit that he might have been biased. And while their daughter looked just Emily she acted just like her father, even early on. She was a charmer and won over everyone she met. Their son was a bit more reserved and shy, like Emily, and gave an untrusting look when he met new people, much to the amusement of his parents. But he did love his Aunt JJ and uncle Morgan, although he didn't quite trust Henry yet.

"I didn't do that" Emily said adamantly.

"Yeah you did" JJ and Alex both said simultaneously.

"WHERE ARE MY BABIES?" The group heard Garcia yell from the other side of the door, waking up the couple's daughter but not their son.

"This is so Emily's child" JJ joked as she opened to the door to find Morgan, Garcia, and Kevin.

"There's my godson" Morgan cooed as he took the baby out of JJ's arms, "My little heartbreaker."

"Emily he stole my baby" JJ complained as she pointed to Morgan who was swaying back and forth with the sleeping baby.

"Oh the humanity" Emily said sarcastically as Kevin looked over at the baby who was wearing a pearl blue cotton coverall with cabling on the chest and arms and a matching cotton hat and booties set.

"What is his name again?" Kevin tried to discretely ask Garcia.

Garcia gasped loudly, compromising any resemblance of discretion. "My God they're practically our children Kevin! You should know their names. This is Everett Matthew and my dark prince is holding Blair Prentiss Vanderbilt, queen of London babies" she informed him before she went over to collect Blair, who was wearing a cashmere pink coverall that was comparable to Everett's. "You are the most beautiful baby ever, aren't you?" Garcia smiled as JJ scowled.

"Hey! What about Henry?"

"But…mini Prentiss" Garcia said as Blair smiled and reached towards JJ's blonde hair.

"Aww" JJ responded as Emily coughed, "pushover."

"Shut it big Prentiss" JJ shot back.

"Big Prentiss? I take offense at that, giant Jareau" Emily replied with a lopsided grin.

"By the by, wherever did you get these clothes Gumdrop? They're adorable."

"Mother" Emily answered with a smile. Blair had softened her mother from the first time she met her when she yawned whilst The Ambassador was holding her. Elizabeth Prentiss had commented that her mannerisms emulated Emily's when she was a baby and it seemed to melt her heart. It was also amusing to watch her BAU family dote on her children as Hotch, Rossi, Reid, and new agent Alex Blake filtered into JJ's crowded house and took turns prying the babies out of each other's hands.

"Give me back my godson pretty boy" Morgan ordered as he snatched Everett back from Reid, who was lecturing to the baby on time zones and jet lag. "Baby thief" Morgan grumbled as went back to swaying with the infant.

"Remember when I was the new agent?" Alex asked Emily as he leaned against the hallway doorway and smiled at her.

"Yeah" she smiled back. "I was so mad at you because I had to wear a turtleneck in 80 degree weather."

Alex just laughed at her, "There are worse problems in life sassafras."

"Never have there been truer words preppy" she replied with a grin as she got off the sofa to walk closer to him.

"You know I technically promised to only have one drink and one dance with you" he softly admitted as she pulled closer to him, running her hands underneath his leather jacket.

"Yeah, but we both know that was never a promise either of us intended to keep" she whispered back into his ear as they both chuckled.

"You do know that we are never letting Blair go to a bar right?" Alex laughed with a hint of seriousness.

"Not a chance" Emily smiled as she wrapper her hands around his neck and pulled him into a kiss.

THE END

**It's been a lot of fun and thanks for all the reviews/reads. **

**I wanted to end on a lighthearted note that mirrored the beginning of the first story in the series, but I will say that my next work will probably have more drama/angst and will involve some sort of a romantic battle of wills. Of course there will be comical elements, but not quite as many as this series. At least for now, I think the Alex/Emily series is done and I think it had a satisfying enough ending. **

**I'm looking forward to doing something new and will post it when I have the storyline ****completed in my head. I'm thinking early to mid next week. Thanks again. **


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